• Shooting suspect has an extensive file on him, having been in the Army National Guard for 20 years.
  • This suspect had a mental health file, a history, having been admitted to a MH facility, then released, unsupervised.
  • FOR GOD’S SAKE, HE THREATENED TO SHOOT-UP HIS NG BASE!
  • The FBI has no merit! When have they EVER stopped a mass-casualty attack? Never!

Massacre at children’s bowling league: Gunman burst into alley ‘packed with kids’ and opened fire with AR-15-style rifle as survivors fled down lanes and hid behind pins during Maine rampage that left at least 22 dead and 60 wounded

A gunman opened fire on a children’s bowling league in a rampage that killed at least 22 people and wounded 60 in the Maine city of Lewiston – and is now on the run as a huge manhunt is underway.

Survivors have described how they escaped by fleeing down bowling lanes and hiding behind pins as the gunman used an AR-15-style rifle to open fire while children were playing – with teenagers among the injured.

The shooter, who police believe is previously sectioned Army reserve firearms instructor Robert Card, used an AR-15-style rifle to open fire inside the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley and then nearby Schemengees Bar and Grille.

Lewiston, a small city of about 38,000, is on lockdown as police hunt for Card, 40, who was sectioned this summer with mental health issues. He previously reported hearing voices and threatened to shoot up his National Guard base in Saco, Maine.

One bowler, who only identified himself by his first name Brandon, said he heard 10 shots ring out before he ran down the alley barefoot and climbed inside the bowling machinery to hide from the gunman.

Describing the moment that the shooter opened fire, Brandon said: ‘We were inside, just a normal night of bowling. Out of nowhere he just came in and there was a loud pop.

‘I thought it was a balloon, I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon, he was holding a weapon, I just booked it down the lane and I slid basically in where the pins are and climbed on the machine.

Brandon, who stayed on top of the machines for about ten minutes until the cops arrived, said that the gunman was around 15ft behind him. ‘He was close, very close,’ he added.

‘I just went there to bowl by myself and I wasn’t even in there 10 minutes, I just walked in the place. I was putting on my bowling shoes when it started. I’ve been barefoot for five hours.’

Riley Dumont said her 11-year-old daughter was playing in the children’s bowling league when she heard several gunshots. She told ABC News her father, a retired police officer, rushed the family into a corner.

‘I was laying on top of my daughter,’ Dumont said, adding that her own mother lay on both of them to protect them. At least seven people were killed in the first shooting.

Jason J. Levesque told CNN that the youngest victims of the shootings were teenagers, adding that trauma specialists and grief counselors were at the scene.

Chilling CCTV images show Card, from Bowdoin, Maine, pointing his rifle as he walked into the  bowling alley, while dramatic footage shows terrified people running for their lives.

Residents have been told to stay at home and lock their doors with the gunman still at large. This is the deadliest attack of the 565 mass shootings in the US this year.

Officers have confirmed that Card’s vehicle – a 2013 white Subaru – was found near the boat dock in Lisbon, about seven miles southeast of Lewiston, but the suspect was not inside.

The ‘armed and dangerous’ shooter, who has been named as a ‘person of interest’ by police, was holding an AR 15-style rifle with a laser optic when he burst into the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley at 7:15pm local time (12.15am BST) to begin his rampage.

Police then received calls about a shooting at a second location, Schemengees Bar and Grille, which was around four miles away. A spokesperson for the bar said: ‘My heart is crushed. I am at a loss for words.’

They said that their world was ‘turned upside down for no good reason’, adding: How can we make any sense of this? Sending out prayers to everyone.’

Concerned friends and family members of possible victims are desperately hunting for information as they claim police won’t tell them who the casualties are as it is an ongoing investigation.