2023-10-26 11:14:39
SHOOTING-USA-ARMS,PREV
USA: at least 22 dead in several shootings in Maine, gunman on the run
WASHINGTON, Oct 26, 2023 – At least 22 people died Wednesday in several shootings in the state of Maine, in the northeastern United States, with the shooter still on the run, according to local authorities and several American media.
“We have 22 confirmed deaths and many, many injured,” Robert McCarthy, elected official from Lewiston, a town of more than 36,000 inhabitants where the tragedy took place, told CNN.
“Our hospitals are not equipped to handle this type of shooting,” he added, specifying that there were between 50 and 60 injured depending on the city.
The alleged suspect is “still at large,” said Androscoggin County police, who released photos showing a man, dressed in a brown top and dark blue pants, armed with a semi-automatic rifle. .
The shootings took place in at least two different locations, a bowling alley and a restaurant, according to CNN.
Another killing took place the same evening in a logistics center of a Walmart supermarket, according to several American media.
US President Joe Biden was briefed on the events and spoke with several Maine elected officials, including Governor Janet Mills, offering all necessary federal support, according to the White House.
Local authorities, who asked residents to stay at home, also published a photo of a white car, asking citizens to contact them if they recognized the vehicle.
– “Horrified” –
“It’s an overwhelming situation. We have never experienced anything like this,” Cynthia Hunter, who has lived in Lewiston since 2012, testified on local television.
Public schools will be closed Thursday, a school district official said on X (formerly Twitter).
“I am horrified by what happened in Lewiston this evening,” Maine representative Jared Golden said in a statement.
The United States is paying a very heavy price for the spread of firearms on its territory and the ease with which Americans have access to them.
The country has more individual weapons than inhabitants: one adult in three owns at least one weapon and nearly one adult in two lives in a home where there is a weapon.
The consequence of this proliferation is the very high rate of firearm deaths in the United States, incomparable to that of other developed countries.
Excluding suicides, more than 15,000 people have died in gun violence since the start of the year in the country, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) association.
However, it is the mass shootings that stand out the most, while illustrating the ideological divide separating conservatives and progressives on the question of how to prevent such tragedies.
Recent American history is indeed punctuated by killings, with no place in daily life seeming safe, from the business to the church, from the supermarket to the discotheque, from the public highway to public transport. common.
But, despite the mobilization of more than a million demonstrators, the United States Congress has not adopted an ambitious law, many elected officials being under the influence of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the first American gun lobby.
In fact, in a country where the possibility of owning a firearm is considered by millions of Americans as a fundamental constitutional right, the only recent legislative advances remain marginal, such as the generalization of criminal and psychiatric background checks above all. purchase of weapons.
With AFP
#USA #dead #shootings #Maine #gunman #run #AIB