A MAINE mother has revealed her teenage son played cornhole with mass shooter Robert Card at the same bar he conducted part of his sickening rampage on Wednesday night, leaving at least 18 dead and a dozen others hurt.

Card, 40, opened fire inside the Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston at around 6:55pm on Wednesday, killing 10, before driving four miles away to Schemengees Bar and Grille and tragically claiming eight more lives.

Another 13 people were seriously injured in the rampage, some of whom remain in a critical condition in hospital.

Card, meanwhile, was the subject of an intensive manhunt spanning multiple counties and involving numerous law enforcement agencies.

On Friday evening, he was found dead by investigators, sources say. The news was first broken by NBC10.

Further details were not immediately available.

Dive teams spent hours scouring the Androscoggin River across Friday, and various other searches took place on foot in Bowdoin and Durham.

It has been reported that Card penned a suicide note, addressed to his son and left at his home before his killing spree began, which has since been recovered by law enforcement.

Investigators confirmed on Friday that a note was found during a search of the property but declined to discuss any details regarding its contents.

For 48 hours, the town of Lewiston and multiple neighboring towns were placed under a shelter-in-place order that was finally rescinded with immediate effect early Friday evening, following a press conference.

During that time, almost no businesses were open in the area, as Mainers hunkered down in their homes, waiting desperately for updates about the hunt for Card.

One of the very few places to open their doors before the order was lifted was the marijuana dispensary, 207THC, located in downtown Lewiston.

The manager of the store, Jennifer Coffey, told The U.S. Sun of a chilling encounter her 14-year-old son shared with Card at Schemengees Bar just months before his killing spree began.

“My son knew him,” said Coffey, whose teenage son – like Card – regularly competed in cornhole competitions at Schemengees and other local bars in the area.

“He said, ‘Mom, he was a really nice guy.'”

Coffey said the encounter between her son and Card happened over the summer, just a matter of weeks ago.

Her son triumphed over Card in the contest, and the now-accused mass murderer apparently took the loss well.

“[My son] said he took it really well, he shook his hand and everything and told him, ‘If you were older, you played so good I’d have bought you a beer.'”

[My son] said he took it really well, he shook his hand and everything and told him, ‘If you were older, you played so good I’d have bought you a beer.

Jennifer Coffey

Coffey said her son remembered Card as totally unassuming and didn’t have a negative word to say about him during his own interactions with him.

Card was both a regular at Schemengees and Just-in-Time Recreation, friends and family members have since revealed, with some describing him as an avid cornhole payer.

On the night of the shooting, there was a cornhole tournament for members of the local deaf community inside Schemengees.

In an interview, with The Daily Beast, Card’s sister-in-law, Katie O’Neill, revealed that he had recently suffered significant hearing loss and needed to wear high-powered hearing aides.

O’Neill said he had become paranoid and believed he could hear voices of other people talking about him in both the bar and the bowling alley, in the months preceding the shooting.

“He would get mad and claim that we didn’t believe him. We tried to listen to him and tell him that nobody was talking about him,” O’Neill told the outlet.

“As the story was unfolding, we prayed that Rob had nothing to do with this. But when we heard the two places where the shooting happened, my husband rushed home.”

‘SENSELESS VIOLENCE’

Four members of Lewiston’s deaf community were killed inside Schemengees on Wednesday night: Billy Brackett, 48; Steve Vozzella, 45; Bryan MacFarlane, 41; and ASL interpreter Joshua Seal, 36.

Card was also – according to Coffey and various other locals who spoke to The U.S Sun – a regular at Just-in-Time.

On the night of the shooting, the alley was hosting a children’s bowling league event, with more than 100 hundred people packed inside, enjoying what should’ve been a fun night at the lanes.

Coffey, a local at both locations herself, said there’s no doubt in her mind that Card was aware of both of the events and sought to target the two groups gathered at each establishment: children and the deaf community.

“This guy knew who would be at both of these places; he was a regular,” said Coffey.

In total, six people she knew were killed in the massacre.

Tears began welling in her eyes when she attempted to utter the names of the victims she knew.

“This was just needless, senseless violence,” said an emotional Coffey, confirming one of her son’s friends was killed.

“This was nothing we were ever prepared for. We’re a small community, and we wanted to be put on the map for something, but not this. This has just been a nightmare.

“We’re all experiencing this anxiety that we never in a million years expected to feel. We’re not at war, but – I hate to say it – this felt like a terrorist act.

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“This is not something you expect to happen on your front door. Unfortunately, you expect school shootings now, you expect shootings in neighborhoods, but you never expect your whole community to try to be taken out in one night.”

WARNING SIGNS

Coffey said the fear, anxiety, and pain rippling through the typically vibrant and tight-knit local community has been palpable over the last two days.

Streets that are typically bustling with families and groups of young people have been rendered desolate; reminiscent of the early days of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And though the shelter-in-place orders have since been lifted, law enforcement admitted on Friday that they’d not had a single sighting of the gunman for more than 48 hours – despite receiving more than 500 tips.

Police have also declined to share what leads – if any – they had in theor search for Card.

When asked if Card could’ve stolen another vehicle, or taken a boat down the river near the location where his SUV was found in the aftermath of the shooting, Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck responded: “Is that a possibility? Sure. Is the river a possibility? Sure.”

Sauschuck also admitted that police do not know how many weapons Card had in his possession.

During the same press conference, officials identified all 18 victims of the shooting for the first time. They ranged in age from 14 to 76.

According to Maine State Police, seven people died at Sparetime Recreation bowling alley — six males and one female.

Eight more people died at the nearby Schemengees Bar and Grille, all of them male. Three additional victims died at area hospitals.

In the months preceding the devastating shooting, Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks over the summer after reporting hearing voices and threatening to “shoot up” a local military base.

The gun investigators believe Card used in Wednesday’s mass shooting was purchased legally just days before he was hospitalized and ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation, multiple law enforcement sources told CNN.

In mid-July, New York State Police were called to Camp Smith in Cortlandt, New York — the military base where Card served — because he was acting “belligerently and possibly intoxicated,” the network reported.

He was reportedly taken by state police to a nearby hospital and released the next day.

That encounter with state police occurred just 10 days after he purchased a Ruger SFAR, a high-powered rifle, that he later used to kill 18.

According to CNN, Card also bought a Beretta 92-F 9mm semi-automatic pistol at the same time as the Ruger SFAR.

‘FIX THE SYSTEM TO FIX THIS PROBLEM’

Coffey said she shares the anger and heartache that many of her neighbors, friends, and family are currently feeling.

But, she says she also feels sympathy for Card, calling him a “victim of the system.”

“People knew this was going to happen,” she said. “They should’ve given him more help when he needed it, rather than throwing meds at him that clearly didn’t work.

“This guy was begging for their f**king help […] he’s a victim of the system: he’s a victim of the military; he’s a victim of the mental health system; he’s a victim of not getting the help he so clearly needed.

“It’s sad what happened, and we are all angry, but we are not going to solve anything by killing this man.

“But I don’t believe violence or blood lust is the way to go about it; you don’t solve violence with violence. That’s how wars are created, and that’s how people keep dying.

“You don’t need to shed more blood to fix a problem.

“Fixing the system that brought us here will fix the problem.”

Card was found dead later Friday.

A report from the Bangor Daily News suggested he was found dead near a recycling center where he used to work.

He was apparently wearing the same clothes he had on during the shooting.