Documents reveal horror of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting
By David Sharp And Holly Ramer, The Associated Press on June 7, 2024.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – Thousands of pages Maine Department of Public Safety documents released Friday include detailed descriptions of the chaos and carnage surrounding the state’s deadliest mass shooting. Officers arrived at the two shooting scenes in Lewiston last October not knowing if the gunman was still there, and with living and dead victims on the floors. One officer described desperate survivors screaming for help as he searched for the shooter. “They grab at our legs and try to stop us and we can not help them,” wrote Lewiston Officer Keith Caoueutte. “We have to walk by and continue to search and hope they are alive when we come back around.” Another police officer’s first instinct was that an act of domestic terrorism had been committed, underscored by the heavy police presence and flashing blue lights. “I truly felt like we were at war,” Auburn Lt. Steven Gosselin wrote. Their descriptions of the scenes at a bowling alley and a bar and grill where 18 people were killed and 13 others wounded were included in more than 3,000 pages of documents released Friday by Maine Department of Public Safety in response to Freedom of Access Act requests by The Associated Press and other news organizations. Associated Press reporters had reviewed more than a third of the pages before the website with the documents crashed late Friday afternoon. State officials said documents will be made available again on Monday. ___ Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer Steve LeBlanc contributed from Boston. 10-9
