When the shooting happened in Lewiston, these Mainers were called into action

In the minutes after last year’s mass shooting in Lewiston, there were 50 calls to 911. More than 400 police officers rushed to help.

But the massive response could not be fully quantified by the state commission that investigated the shooting in which 40-year-old Army reservist Robert Card II killed 18 people and injured another 13 at a bowling alley and bar. Another 20 were injured trying to escape these scenes.

Hundreds of Mainers were called into action to do things they were trained to do – or not. These included dispatchers, medical personnel, officials coordinating community services, and lawyers who were suddenly asked for help or came of their own volition.

Here are the stories of a doctor, a politician and a victim advocate called to serve. They have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Dr. John Alexander, chief medical officer of Central Maine Healthcare

Alexander oversees operations and medical staff at the Lewiston-based hospital system, including Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, which treated numerous shooting victims.

I had just gotten home and probably five minutes later I got a call about an active shooter in the city of Lewiston and that we were expecting multiple victims to come to the medical center. So I came back. Our administrative team assembled and opened a task force to stay organized and allocate resources.

My responsibility shifted to the emergency room, where patients arrived. We had a hallway full of team members, probably 50 people at a time. They had come to ask, “How can we help?” Within 30 to 40 minutes, only 13 victims came to us. Probably around 9:30 that evening we realized that we had received everyone we wanted to receive.

It took a few hours to find out who was in our hospital, and relatives were still at the scene searching for deceased people. That was really difficult. Many of the victims were taken in either police vehicles or private vehicles, not ambulances, and did not necessarily carry identification. We worked to communicate until 2 or 3 a.m. to let everyone know we were thinking about them and that our job, first and foremost, was to continue to keep them safe.

At this point it was completely unclear where the shooter was. Not only did we have shooting patients, we had about 150 patients in our hospital. [Of the 13 gunshot victims]About half were released either that night or in the next four to five days. We had two victims for three to five weeks. We had two fatalities and a third person died shortly after arrival.

It was certainly the largest recruiting event ever. During the initial boom, there were between 150 and 200 employees on site. They were very affected. Three or four people who died were friends or family members of team members. Robert Card has a family member who is on our team. The number of people who said, “I should have taken my kids there [the bowling alley that night]“” or “My husband would be there” was incredibly impressive.

We had caregivers on site 24 hours a day on weekends and continued this for about a month. Each of our team members was contacted by someone and asked how they were doing and what they needed. We use the phrase, “It’s okay to not be okay.”

Former Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque

Levesque was in office at the time of the mass shooting in his community’s sister city across the Androscoggin River. It quickly became clear that the chaos and manhunt would extend beyond Lewiston. Levesque went to Auburn Middle School to help officials open a family reunification center. where many found family members alive or later learned they were dead.

The most important thing I will never forget is the evening at the reunification center, talking to my loved ones and families and not having the information to give them. I tried to reassure them, knowing that some of them would not be reunited with their loved ones. That stands out.

The second moment was watching the reunions take place over the course of that night and feeling this overwhelming sense of relief, seeing people I know being reunited and hearing their stories. This will stay with me forever. The episode was actually a whirlwind of conversations with community members and people around the world.

There was a big information vacuum. They needed to hear from elected officials. They had to know something. All the fear that plagued this area for several days was quite delicate, a very stressful situation.

I demand [others] to look at the healing process, the fragility of life and the volatility we find ourselves in and make the most of each day.

Cara Cookson, director of victim services in Maine

Cara Cookson, the director of victim services in the Maine Attorney General’s Office, was at a conference in Bar Harbor when she and several colleagues were together heard about a mass casualty incident in Lewiston. You and others Victim Witness Advocate worked remotely before heading into town. Since then, they have helped many who suffered physical and psychological trauma that night.

Early on, we committed ourselves to doing our best to provide the same level of support and services that we would provide in any other criminal case, even though we had no idea how large and complex the work would become if it were it is mass violence.

When the FBI Victim Services team left, Victim Services had to become a nationwide initiative, with attorneys traveling from as far away as Presque Isle and Machias to assist, and our colleagues in New Hampshire spending two weeks with us. I’m proud to say we are a stronger group of advocates because of this experience, and now I’m focused on helping advocates build long-term resilience.

One of the challenges of working as a victim advocate is that the work only begins when the immediate crisis is over and people move on. But amid all the grief and fear – and for some, physical pain – we also witness the strength and resilience of survivors that emerges over time. We’ll see how the story continues.

For many it is impossible to simply move on and most will carry this for the rest of their lives and at the same time I can’t help but be impressed by the community the survivors have built to support each other and the way some people started have to change, sometimes take your breath away.