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topicnews · October 26, 2024

One year after the shooting, hundreds gather in Lewiston for night of love and healing • Maine Morning Star

One year after the shooting, hundreds gather in Lewiston for night of love and healing • Maine Morning Star

At 6:56 p.m On Friday, hundreds of Mainers sat in silence at the Colisee in Lewiston, marking the moment a gunman entered a year earlier Just-in-time recovery and fired 18 rounds from a .308 Ruger SFAR4 rifle. He killed eight people and injured three others.

At 7:07 p.m. those present took another break. A year ago this minute, the gunman opened fire again at Schememenge’s Bar and Grille, firing 36 shots in 78 seconds, killing 10 people and wounding 10 others.

One year after the deadliest mass shooting in the state, community members and 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.

Lewiston shooting victims:

  • Ronald G. Morin, 55
  • Peyton Brewer Ross, 40
  • Joshua Seal, 36
  • Bryan MacFarlane, 41
  • Joseph Lawrence Walker, 57
  • Arthur Fred Strout, 42
  • Maxx Hathaway, 35
  • Stephen Vozzella, 45
  • Thomas Ryan Conrad, 34
  • Michael Deslauriers II, 51
  • Jason Adam Walker, 51
  • Tricia Asselin, 53
  • William Young, 44
  • Aaron Young, 14
  • Robert Violette, 76
  • Lucille Violette, 73
  • William Frank Brackett, 48
  • Keith Macneir, 64

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

After seeing the worst of humanity, said the master of ceremonies Tom Caron, the best part of humanity has become clear: the strength of community.

“We remember that tragic day last year,” said Caron, a Lewiston native and announcer for the Boston Red Sox. “Tonight, let us try to remember this night in the spirit of the love and lasting healing we find in our community.”

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

“It’s true when they say Maine is a big, little town,” Seal said, repeating an oft-repeated phrase. “In this group of 18 victims, there was someone who captained my softball team, someone who served food at my daughter’s birthday party, someone whose children attended the same school as my children, someone who attended my friends’ school, someone the host was fundraising events for our church, which I attended, someone whose niece is friends with my daughter. And I could gon and so 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 down the row of chairs before the event began, with some using American Sign Language to say “I love you” to everyone — 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 on Oct. 25, 2023, killing eight people and wounding three others. (Photo by Harlan Crichton/Maine Morning Star)

The memorial event, hosted by the One Lewiston Resilience Fund Committee in collaboration with the City of Lewiston, the Maine Resiliency Center and the Lewiston Auburn Metro Chamber of Commerce, began similar to the vigil shortly after last year’s tragedy with a reading of the names of the killed.

Last October, Rev. Sarah GillespieHospice Chaplain from Androscoggin Home Healthcare and Hospice, said to vigil participants There is still love. “A love that cannot be shot down, a love that cannot be threatened or terrorized, a love that is stronger than everything that divides us.” Gillespie said. “An indescribable love for Lewiston, our home.”

On Friday, Gillespie offered a blessing to the brokenhearted and reiterated that the cure is always love, but that the presence of love does not mean everything is healed.

“For now, let us agree that we will not say that the break makes us stronger, but that it is better to have this pain than to renounce this love.” Gillespie said. “Let us promise that we will not convince ourselves that time will heal the wound when our awakening reopens it each day.”

“Perhaps it’s enough for now to simply marvel at the mystery of how a heart so broken can keep beating as if it were designed for just that – as if it knew that the only cure for love is more of it.”

Last year Condition And federal Investigations concluded that the U.S. Army Reserve and local authorities failed to take necessary steps to reduce the threat posed by Shooter AMy reservist Robert Card II of Bowdoin, Authorities were already aware of his deteriorating mental health before the shooting.

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

A mother and child lay flowers outside at memorials for the victims of the mass shooting in Lewiston on October 25 Schemege’s bar and grill. (Photo by Harlan Crichton/Maine Morning Star)

Joanna Stokinger, lead attorney for the Maine Resiliency Center, which was founded after the shooting, said she is confident the Lewiston community will not succumb to the pain of the tragedy because she has watched people return to the same places that were theirs World would have changed year ago.

“For 364 days, I have seen people healed, I have watched survivors help others, I have seen friendships develop and a chosen family emerge.” Stokinger said, but added that there is no roadmap to healing.

“It’s okay to have all these feelings and it’s okay to not be okay.” said Stoker. “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 help plan an upcoming memorial for the victims.

State leaders offer their condolences and praise the strength of Mainers

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

“Today we remember not only the unspeakable horror that unfolded, but also the undeniable heroism that occurred,” 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, Maine House Speaker 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. Senator Angus King and U.S. Senator Susan Collins and U.S. Representative Jared Golden. Rep. Austin Theriault, who is running against Golden for the 2nd District, was also in attendance.

Even though the tragedy occurred a year ago, the pain of that day is still vivid for Talbot Ross.

“The impact of this tragedy has rippled across our entire state, reminding us how interconnected we truly are,” Talbot Ross wrote in a statement. “In the face of this grief, we have witnessed the remarkable strength of the people of Maine. Neighbors supported each other, first responders acted bravely, and communities across Maine were united in grief and solidarity. It is this spirit of resilience that drives us forward, even as we continue to process the profound loss.”

Mills too praised the strength of the people of Maine in one Video tribute Friday morning.

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

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