Suspected Maine mass shooter made anti-trans posts on social media

As families and the local community in Lewiston, Maine reel in the aftermath of the largest mass shooting in the U.S. this year, a picture of the suspect’s mental state is emerging based on his social media activity. His past posts included re-tweets of anti-transgender and pro-MAGA statements, including a post opposing bans on assault weapons. Card allegedly used an assault weapon in the shooting.

Law enforcement officials believe the suspect, Robert Card, age 40, killed at least 18 people and injured 13 more Wednesday evening at the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley and nearby Schemengees Bar and Grille. The death toll is expected to rise as officials identify the dead.  

Related:

Shooter who killed 6 at Christian elementary school in Nashville was possibly transgender

A source said that he announced his transition “relatively recently.”

As of Friday morning, Card, a certified firearms instructor and a US Army reservist from Bowdoin, Maine, was still on the run.

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According to a police bulletin circulated by law enforcement and reported by the Associated Press, Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks earlier this year after he reported “hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, Maine.”

Now Card’s social media activity on Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, reveals the suspected shooter’s anti-trans and pro-MAGA sentiments.

Both accounts have been deleted since the shooting, although it is unclear if Card removed the accounts himself or if they were taken down by Facebook parent company Meta or administrators at Elon Musk’s Twitter.

Card’s own posts and likes indicate he was obsessed with conspiracy theories, held trans and gay people in contempt, and was a COVID truther. He was a big fan of Elon Musk.

“Mass murderer for a wnba player great job keep up the good work,” Card commented on a story about gay WNBA player Brittney Griner who was convicted in Russia on drug smuggling charges last year and later released. Griner was never accused of mass murder.

Card liked a Twitter post by Donald Trump, Jr. about “trans/non-binary mass shooters” following the mass shooting at a Christian school in Nashville earlier this year, that killed three children and three children. Trump’s post read: “Given the incredible rise of trans/non-binary mass shooters in the last few years… by far the largest group committing as a percentage of population… maybe, rather than talking about guns we should be talking about lunatics pushing their gender affirming bullsh*t on our kids?”

Right-wingers have increasingly claimed that trans people and kids who learn about so-called “gender ideology” in schools are more likely to be school shooters. There is absolutely no proof to back up these claims.

Card liked another tweet on the same subject by fired Fox host Tucker Carlson, which claimed, “The trans movement, it turns out, is the mirror image of Christianity, and therefore its natural enemy. People who believe they’re God can’t stand to be reminded that they’re not.”

Card also liked right-wing Trump acolyte Dinesh D’Souza’s post denouncing assault weapons bans: “Ban assault weapons? Well, cars kill more people than guns do. But we blame the drivers. We don’t ban large or fast cars. We understand that cars, like guns, don’t act by themselves. The blame lies with the people who operate these mechanical devices. Common sense 101.”

Posts from failed Freedom Caucus House Speaker candidate Jim Jordan (R-OH) and failed far-right House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) also earned likes from Card.