Bates College lifted its campus-wide lockdown early Friday evening.
The announcement ended 46 hours of movement restrictions, shuttered doors and locked buildings on campus, which were part of a larger response from Maine state officials. After a mass shooter killed 18 people in downtown Lewiston at about 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 26, entire cities were under shelter-in-place orders for nearly two days.
“This is not to say the crisis is over,” Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said in a press conference; the manhunt for the suspect is ongoing. But residents would no longer be told to stay inside because of it.
Sauschuck said that hunting would be prohibited in the towns of Lewiston, Lisbon, Bowdoin and Monmouth, which have emerged as the center of the ongoing search for the shooter. The season for deer hunting with firearms was set to begin tomorrow.
Bates informed its students that its campus lockdown would end at about 6:20 p.m., an hour Sauschuck announced that citywide shelter-in-place orders had been rescinded; an email to students from Geoff Swift said that the college would “continue to follow the guidance of our Maine public safety authorities, and advise our community to continue to be vigilant and make decisions about being outside in a way that is most comfortable for them.”
Swift’s email indicated that life at Bates would slowly begin to return to normal, with buildings reopening to keycard holders on Saturday and in-person classes resuming on Monday. Students should check their email for more information.
Even as students are no longer confined to their rooms and residents are free to leave their homes, the manhunt for the suspect in Maine’s most deadly mass shooting continues with little success. Despite divers searching the Androscoggin River, teams combing through forested areas of the state and hundreds of police officers on the ground in Lewiston and surrounding cities, Sauschuck said that “law enforcement has not seen him in the last two days.”
Authorities released a full list of the victims on Friday evening, who ranged in age from 14 to 76. In a Thursday email, College President Garry Jenkins said that a faculty member had been injured, but no students or staff were killed in the shootings.
Students who need support should reach out to Counseling and Psychological Services, the Multifaith Chaplaincy and/or their Student Support Advisor. For employees, the Employee Assistance Program is available by calling 1-888-238-6232; additional resources can be found on the HR Homepage.
