Cable news went into marathon coverage mode Wednesday night as the nation was shocked by reports of mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine.
The shootings occurred at the Schemengees Bar & Grille restaurant and Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley, the Lewiston Police Department announced on Facebook. At an official press conference, Mike Sauschuck, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, did not provide an estimate of the number of people killed and wounded in the shootings.
CNN, Fox, MSNBC and NewsNation were among the news outlets covering the shootings and sharing ongoing updates from police, including the Lewiston Police Department, which identified the “person of interest” as Robert R. Card; a manhunt is still underway.
“These incidents end when police arrive and confront the shooter – the shooter takes his own life or engages with police or tries to take their lives,” John Miller, CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, said Wednesday night. “In this case, the shooter made a definitive effort — a deliberate effort — to get away. To get away from the first location, to commit the second part of the crime, to get away again. So we have to ask ourselves, from a behavioural point of view, is he getting away because he thinks he won’t be identified, that he might get away with this crime? Or this worst-case scenario, is he getting away because he has another target, that he has another location?”
“As our Boston police commissioner, Ed Davis, said a few minutes ago, this is a nightmare scenario for police,” Miller continued. “They know they’re not only dealing with a criminal – they know they’re not only dealing with an armed criminal – but a criminal who is heavily armed and has very little to lose, there’s nothing he’s going to do beyond killing 22 people that’s going to get him in any more trouble.”
