Police have still shared few details about the mass shootings that left as many as 20 people dead in Maine’s second-largest city on Wednesday night.

But it was clear that something devastating had hit Lewiston, in the hours after a shooter allegedly opened fire in the Just In Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar & Grille.

It was the first time a Maine community had experienced the kind of highly public mass shooting that makes national news. That was clear from the large public safety response — followed by the groups of journalists in the hours since.

Around 8 p.m., the interstate highway leading to Lewiston was filled with police cruisers and first responders racing to the scene — lights flashing, sirens screaming.

Downtown, the streets were eerily quiet as residents mostly heeded a lockdown warning, save for the occasional bicyclist or passerby.

“This is crazy,” said resident Jess Paquette, who was out walking her dog Henrietta. “This is just nuts.”

But the police presence was hard to ignore over the next few hours. For a time, officers flocked to a Walmart distribution center that was the site of a suspected third shooting, but that site was eventually cleared.

Many other officers remained stationed throughout the city, guarding a hospital where shooting victims had been taken and using searchlights to inspect the insides of cars.

State Police have identified 40-year-old Robert R. Card II as a person of interest in the shootings.

Officers were also set up on Route 196 in the neighboring town of Lisbon, turning away motorists so that they could continue searching after Card’s car was found in that area.

For a time, a helicopter was also circling overhead.

Back in town, even though things were quiet, there were still clear signs of the unfolding tragedy.

Loved ones of victims were seen walking in and out of Central Maine Medical Center, with police officers escorting some families to their cars.

One man asked a reporter for a cigarette, saying his son was shot and in the hospital. He declined to share more information.

Across the river in Auburn, a middle school was converted to a site for people to reunite with loved ones who witnessed the shootings. Small groups of people could be seen walking out, wrapped in blankets and holding each other.

They declined interviews and kept going to their vehicles.

One man and woman stopped in front of their truck and hugged. When they got in the vehicle, a voice could be heard on the other end of a speaker phone call.

“Hi mom,” the voice said. “Are you OK?”

—  Charles Eichacker / Bangor Daily News, Maine 

BDN editor Michael Shepherd, reporter Billy Kobin, and photographers Troy R. Bennett and Linda Coan O’Kresik contributed to this report.

___

(c)2023 the Bangor Daily News (Bangor, Maine)

Visit the Bangor Daily News (Bangor, Maine) at www.bangordailynews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

The Ravens’ 38 points Sunday against the Lions was their highest output of the season. Lamar Jackson’s 357 passing yards were the second-most of his career, and he produced a near-perfect passer rating of 155.8. And Baltimore’s defense shut down a Detroit team that was averaging 28 points, 383.7 yards and had scored at least 20 points in 15 straight games.

Yet, quarterback Lamar Jackson, who on Wednesday was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week, didn’t so much as crack a smile afterward, a demeanor that, to a man, seems to have carried over this week as the Ravens (5-2) prepare to play the Cardinals (1-6) on Sunday in Arizona.

The Ravens, at least publicly, don’t appear to be bathing in their own press clippings, to borrow a phrase from basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton. Of course, that’s what happens when you have a team that beat the Bengals in Cincinnati in Week 2 only to lose at home the following week to the Indianapolis Colts. The Ravens also blew out the Browns in Cleveland in Week 4, only to surrender a double-digit lead against the Steelers in Pittsburgh the following week.

Even Sunday’s 38-6 dismantling of the Lions wasn’t without at least one mishap, notably a fumble by Jackson on an exchange with running back Justice Hill.

Now they’ll face a lowly Cardinals team that has lost four straight and is averaging just 18.1 points per game. Is it a trap?

“I believe you have a trap game or something like that when you get complacent or [are] thinking, ‘OK we just beat this team 30-something to 6, so we’re not worried about this team,’” Jackson said Wednesday. “I believe that’s when that stuff pops into your brain, but I don’t believe our guys are like that.”

Unsurprisingly, that includes the guy in charge.

“We talk to them along those lines,” said coach John Harbaugh, who added that unlike Alabama coach Nick Saban he didn’t have any “clever” rat poison comments for his players.

“We had a good game last week. We have to have the best game we can have this week against a completely different defense, completely different situation. We’re on the road. All those things change. That’ll be our goal. The mission is to keep trying to have a good game from week to week and overarchingly try to improve and get better at all the little things you do.”

His players seem to have gotten the message.

“Right now, we’re just chasing to be consistent,” Jackson said. “We had a couple games where we were good, then the next week it was like, what’s going on with the offense?”

Added wide receiver Rashod Bateman: “I gotta think we make this a bigger deal than it needs to be. We had a good game on Sunday and I think we just turn the page and focus on the Cardinals.”

Many of the usual cliches flowed throughout the locker room.

One game at a time. There’s a lot of football left. Any given Sunday anybody can win.

That’s especially true of Jackson, whose 16-1 mark against the NFC is the best record against an opposing conference since 1970. And he’s coming off a game in which he became just the fourth player in NFL history to record 350 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, one rushing score and finish with a passer rating of 150 or better.

Still, when Jackson was presented with the lion spike by Harbaugh following the win over Detroit, he simply took it and walked back to his locker with nothing in the way of celebration.

As for facing the Cardinals?

“You come out and treat them the way you treated all the other games,” cornerback Marlon Humphrey said. “The thing about a one-win team [is] they’re hungry for that second win or a winless team, so they’re going to come out [and] play hard, we just have to play a little bit harder.”

Added tight end Mark Andrews: “We know the type of team that they are. This is going to be a good game. For us, it’s about doing our job — doing everything that we can during this week. Every week’s a new challenge. Every week’s going to provide something different, so it’s just about handling that, being ourselves and continuing to grow to become the team that we want to be.”

Indeed, the Ravens have struggled to take that next step and string together consistent strong performances in games they’re expected to win, though Jackson did note their victory over the Tennessee Titans in London was followed by Sunday’s win against the Lions. Now comes the opportunity for a third straight.

“I believe we’re going in the right direction,” Jackson said. “We need to keep going.”

Week 8

Ravens at Cardinals

Sunday, 4:25 p.m.

TV: CBS

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

Line: Ravens by 8 1/2

()

Thank God for the little guy out of Liberty.

The 5-foot-8 firecracker exploding out of the slot.

The best pure receiver Bill Belichick has drafted in 10, 15 … maybe 20 years?

Yes, Demario Douglas is that good, and the Patriots just might be winless without him.

Let’s review.

In Week 3, Douglas secured a long third-down catch the play before the Pats scored their only touchdown in a tight win over the Jets. Against Buffalo last weekend, the Patriots let Douglas play more than half of their offensive snaps for the first time all season. From those snaps, he squeezed 74 yards and half-dozen first downs that led directly to scores in a 29-25 triumph.

Sitting Douglas for more than half of any future game would be coaching malpractice. He can fumble or flip a couple birds at the crowd. It shouldn’t matter.

The kid has to play.

The Pats average 2.67 more yards per play with Douglas on the field versus when he’s off, the second-highest differential among their offensive regulars. He gets open faster than any other Patriot receiver and leads them in average separation, per Next Gen Stats. Douglas’ 3.2 yards of separation even out-ranks stars like Stefon Diggs, Jaylen Waddle and Justin Jefferson.

Douglas’ per-play production outpaces them, too. According to Pro Football Focus, whenever Douglas runs a route, he’s gaining an average of 2.23 yards; a number that tiny as he is, but ranks top-20 among NFL receivers with a meaningful number of targets this season.

New England Patriots wide receiver Demario Douglas stiff arms Buffalo Bills defender Ty Johnson during Sunday’s clash in Foxboro. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)

That efficiency out-shines stars like Waddle, Davante Adams, Deebo Samuel and Ja’Marr Chase. But like them, the best way to capture how Douglas impacts a game is with one word: danger.

He threatens defenses in a way no other Patriots pass-catcher does. Defenses cannot ignore his quickness or his long speed like they cold-shoulder most of his teammates. The kid carries a certain gravity to him, like an elite basketball shooter.

If Douglas motions pre-snap, even without the ball, defenses are suddenly on alert. And they should be, considering the Bills allowed 10.6 yards per play whenever a Patriots player motioned at the snap Sunday. More often than not, that player was Douglas.

Motion further weaponizes his playmaking ability, a trail of gasoline leading into a giant blaze. It allows him a head start, either into a route or a hand-off or sometimes a blocking assignment, like on Rhamondre Stevenson’s 34-yard catch-and-run that kick-started the Pats’ game-winning drive.

It sounds like Mac Jones would like more of that motion.

“I definitely enjoyed that part of the game,” Jones said Wednesday of Douglas going in motion. “Pop has done a good job. Just focus(ing) on how we can do that to get guys open, create areas in the defense that become open because of that. And you see that around the NFL, a lot of teams use motion. High school football, it’s big now. College football, it’s been big for a while.

“I definitely enjoy watching other teams use it as well and what you can learn from that information.”

New England Patriots wide receiver Demario Douglas (81) runs with the ball during the second half an NFL football game against the New York Jets on Sunday Sept. 24, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

On Tuesday, Patriots coaches described the Douglas-centric schemes as being game-specific. It’s a week-to-week decision, they added. Well, let’s make that decision easy for them: the answer is yes every day, and as many times as needed on Sundays.

Because the Patriots can speak about being an amorphous offense that shifts its identity week-to-week all they want. The truth is they don’t have the ingredients to cook different dishes on game day. Their menu is more sub shop than Cheesecake Factory.

Bill O’Brien is packaging the same basic concepts — bubble screens to Douglas, swing passes to Stevenson and in-breaking routes for Bourne and Hunter Henry — in new wrapping paper and bows each week to keep defenses guessing. That is what the offense is, and who the Patriots are. That’s fine, even if the Jets knew it in Week 2.

“They don’t really have a complex offense,” said Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner. “It’s pretty simple for the quarterback to get.”

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But Douglas brings a certain spice that can unlock a world of new flavors. Back in January, he struck the Patriots at the Shrine Bowl, a showcase for college prospects, where their assistants coached dozens of college players for a full week. Douglas separated instantly from defenders on the field, and pulled away from the other receivers in the classroom.

“He was a good kid, he was interested, and he sat in the meetings, and he learned,” said Pats wide receivers coach Troy Brown. “When he was able to get out there and go, he came out there and went and did pretty good.”

Douglas’ other position coach, Ross Douglas, confessed he was “shocked” that the young speedster was still available when the Patriots drafted him in the sixth round last April.

“Luckily, he fell in our lap,” Ross Douglas said, “and he’s a New England Patriot.”

Lucky, indeed.