One year after shooting, hundreds gather in Lewiston for night of love and healing

Members of Maine’s deaf community applaud in American Sign Language during the anniversary ceremony for the victims of the Lewiston mass shooting on Oct. 25, 2024. (Photo by Harlan Crichton/ Maine Morning Star)

At 6:56 p.m. on Friday, hundreds of Mainers sat in silence in The Colisée in Lewiston marking the moment a year prior that a shooter entered Just-In-Time Recreation and fired 18 rounds from a .308 Ruger SFAR4 rifle. He killed eight people and wounded three more. 

At 7:07 p.m., those in attendance paused again. A year ago at that minute, the shooter opened fire again at Schemengees Bar and Grille, firing 36 rounds in 78 seconds, killing ten people and wounding ten more. 

One year after the state’s deadliest mass shooting, community members, local and state leaders gathered to honor the 18 people killed and 13 injured, as well as those who responded in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and those who continue to support the community today. 

The speakers — family members of those killed, mental health providers, faith leaders — underscored that multiple things can exist at once. Love and loss. Remembrance and resilience. 

After seeing the worst of humanity, said Master of Ceremonies Tom Caron, the best in humanity has become clear: the strength of community.

“We remember this day last year for tragedy,” said Caron, a Lewiston native and Boston Red Sox announcer. “Let us try to remember this night tonight for the love and continued healing we find in our community.”

Liz Seal, whose husband Josh Seal, an American Sign Language interpreter, died while playing cornhole with friends at Schemengees, explained that tragedy can make us realize we are more connected than we may realize. 

“It’s true when they say that Maine is one big, small town,” Seal said, reiterating an oft-repeated phrase. “In this group of 18 victims, there was someone who umpired my softball team, someone who served food at my daughter’s birthday party, someone whose kids attended the same school as my kids, someone who went to my friend’s children’s school, someone who hosted fundraising events for our community that I attended, someone whose niece is friends with my daughter. And I could go on and on.”

And, Seal concluded, “I love you all.”

Empty seats with blue hearts bearing the names of those killed, including Seal’s husband, shared the stage Friday. Attendees walked alongside the row of chairs before the event began, several using American Sign Language to sign “I love you” to each — a reminder that four of the victims were members of Maine’s deaf community.

“Love Always Wins” read a memorial outside Just-in-Time Recreation in Lewiston one year after a mass shooter opened fire, killing eight people and wounding three more on Oct. 25, 2023. (Photo by Harlan Crichton/ Maine Morning Star)

The commemoration event, hosted by the One Lewiston Resilience Fund Committee in partnership with the City of Lewiston, Maine Resiliency Center and the Lewiston Auburn Metro Chamber of Commerce, began much the same as the vigil held shortly after the tragedy last year, with a reading of the names of those killed.

Last October, Rev. Sarah Gillespie, hospice chaplain of Androscoggin Home Healthcare and Hospice, told vigil attendees there is love, still. “A love that cannot be gunned down, a love that cannot be threatened or terrorized, a love that is stronger than anything that divides us,” Gillespie said. “A love beyond words for Lewiston, our home.”

On Friday, Gillespie shared a blessing for the brokenhearted, again underscoring that the remedy is always love, but that the presence of love does not mean all has been healed. 

“Let us agree for now that we will not say the breaking makes us stronger, for that it is better to have this pain than to have done without this love,” Gillespie said. “Let us promise we will not tell ourselves time will heal the wound, when every day our waking opens it anew.”

“Perhaps for now it can be enough to simply marvel at the mystery of how a heart so broken can go on beating, as if it were made for precisely this — as if it knows the only cure for love is more of it.”

In the past year, state and federal investigations concluded that the U.S. Army Reserve and local authorities failed to undertake necessary steps to reduce the threat posed by the shooter, Army reservist Robert Card II of Bowdoin, whose deteriorating mental health was known to authorities before the shooting. 

Victims of the shooting announced this month their intention to sue for negligence the U.S. Defense Department, Army and the Army hospital that released Card without a plan for treatment months before he committed the mass shooting.

A mother and child place flowers at memorials for those killed in the Oct. 25 Lewiston mass shooting outside Schemengees Bar and Grille. (Photo by Harlan Crichton/ Maine Morning Star)

Joanna Stokinger, lead advocate at the Maine Resiliency Center, which was established in the wake of the shooting, said she’s confident the Lewiston community will not succumb to the pain of the tragedy because she’s watched people return to the same places that changed their world a year ago. 

“I have had 364 days of seeing people heal, of watching survivors serving others, of witnessing friendships form and chosen family built,” Stokinger said, but added that there is no roadmap for healing. 

“It’s okay to have all the feelings, and it’s okay to not be okay,” Stokinger said. “It’s also okay to laugh and smile again.”

Shanna Cox, president and CEO of the Lewiston-Auburn Metro Chamber of Commerce, invited the community to sign up for updates from the One Lewiston Resilience Fund Committee to contribute to the planning of a forthcoming memorial for the victims.

Offering condolences, state leaders praise Mainers’ strength

Regardless of where in the state one calls home, “we remain Lewiston Strong,” Maine Senate President Troy Jackson wrote in a statement Friday. 

“Today we not only remember the unspeakable horror that unfolded but also the undeniable heroism that took place,” Jackson wrote. “On the darkest night in our state’s history and in the face of unimaginable and unmistakable danger, Mainers took actions that saved lives.” 

Jackson, Speaker of the Maine House Rachel Talbot Ross, Gov. Janet Mills, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and other state lawmakers attended the anniversary event Friday, as did most of Maine’s congressional delegation  — U.S. Sen. Angus King, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden. State Rep. Austin Theriault, who is running against Golden for the 2nd District, was also in attendance.

While the tragedy may have occurred a year ago, for Talbot Ross, the pain of that day remains fresh. 

“The impact of this tragedy rippled across our entire state, reminding us of how closely connected we truly are,” Talbot Ross wrote in a statement. “In the face of such sorrow, we witnessed the remarkable strength of the people of Maine. Neighbors supported one another, first responders acted with courage, and communities across Maine stood united in mourning and solidarity. It is this spirit of resilience that carries us forward, even as we continue to process the profound loss.”

Mills also praised the strength of Maine people in a video tribute Friday morning.

“As we mourn and pay tribute to those we lost, as we support those who were injured, and those who bear wounds, both seen and unseen, and as we honor all those who have been affected by the Lewiston tragedy, we also remember our strength,” Mills said, “as a community, as a state, as Maine people.”