Police in Maine said Saturday that the man who gunned down 18 people at a bar and a bowling alley and later committed suicide, suffered serious mental health issues, but was able to buy weapons legally because he had never been forcibly committed to treatment.

The body of Robert Card, a 40-year-old army reservist, was discovered Friday night inside a tractor trailer near a recycling center where he used to work, said Maine public safety commissioner Mike Sauschuck. Card had shot himself.

Investigators are still struggling to determine Card’s motive for carrying out Wednesday’s massacre in the town of Lewiston.

However, Mike Sauschuck said that Card had reportedly been hearing voices and suffering from paranoia.

“Clearly there’s a mental health component to this,” Mr Sauschuck told reporters.

Investigators found a “paper-style” note that Card had left to a loved one which contained a password to his phone and bank account information, Mr Sauschuck said, adding that the note had the tone of a suicide letter.

Card was found in possession of three weapons, one of them a long gun, all purchased legally because he had never been forcibly committed to a mental institution.

Despite the apparently clear mental health issues and a reportedly recent psychiatric evaluation undergone by Card, “a background check is not going to ping that this individual was prohibited,” Mr Sauschuck added.

A ‘coward’s way out’

The discovery of Card’s body ended a massive two-day manhunt, which had this quiet city of 38,000 people on lockdown with businesses and schools closed and residents terrified.

Sauschuck acknowledged the help Card’s family provided to the investigation, saying among the first people to call the police and identify the suspect were his family members. “This family has been incredibly cooperative with us,” he said.

Lewiston finally breathed a sigh of relief with businesses beginning to open and people appearing on the streets Saturday.

Guadalupe Hursch, 49, a stay-at-home mother said she was happy that the ordeal was over. “Relieved. Relieved,” Hursch told AFP, adding that she also felt sorry for Card’s parents.

A local resident by the name of Danica who was buying coffee at a drive-in said she was “very afraid” in the aftermath of the shooting and was now happy Card was dead, but at the same time wished he had first been brought to justice.

“I think he took the coward’s way out of doing it by suicide,” Danica, who declined to give her last name, told AFP. “I think he should be held accountable for his crimes.”

She added: “It’s a very terrible thing and it’s going to take a long time to get back up to be where we were before.”

In a statement issued shortly after Card’s body was discovered Friday night, President Joe Biden vowed to renew efforts to curb gun violence in the United States.

“Americans should not have to live like this,” Joe Biden said. “I will continue to do everything in my power to end this gun violence epidemic.”

President Biden said the shooting brought “a tragic two days — not just for Lewiston, Maine, but for our entire country.”

Authorities on Friday identified the victims, ranging from a husband and wife in their 70s, to a 14-year-old boy killed alongside his father.

This latest shooting is one of the deadliest in the United States since 2017, when a gunman opened fire on a crowded music festival in Las Vegas, killing 60 people

Mass shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, a country where there are more guns than people and where attempts to clamp down on their spread are always met with stiff resistance.

The United States has recorded over 500 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-governmental organization that defines a mass shooting as four or more people wounded or killed.

Efforts to tighten gun controls have for years run up against opposition from Republicans, staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms.

The political paralysis endures despite widespread outrage over recurring shootings.

Her own home was made a living hell for a 73-year-old woman by none other than her son, whom she cared for and educated enough for him to become a lawyer. Videos show the woman being tortured and mercilessly thrashed by her son, daughter-in-law and even her grandson. The lawyer was finally arrested based on evidence from a CCTV camera that he himself had installed in his mother’s room.​

Before his arrest, the lawyer said that he had been serving his mother. 

Asha Rani stayed in Punjab’s Rupnagar with her son, daughter and daughter-in-law. Her husband had died of a heart attack recently and she had told her daughter, Deepshikha, that her son, Ankur Verma. and his wife, Sudha, used to assault her. The daughter managed to get hold of footage from the CCTV camera installed in Asha Rani’s room and was stunned by what she saw.

A horrific video shows the victim’s grandson pouring water on Asha Rani’s mattress and then complaining to his parents that she had wet the bed. Ankur and Sudha are seen coming to investigate and Ankur is then seen assaulting the woman as she lies on the bed. He punches her back, slaps her repeatedly and alternates between the two, all while appearing to be screaming at her. This goes on for nearly a minute.

Ankur leaves and Sudha and the grandson are then seen coming into the room. Sudha points and says something and Ankur walks in again, holds his mother by the hair and jolts her head repeatedly. He is seen slapping her and punching her head while he does this. His wife and son leave the room but he keeps assaulting his mother. 

Another video shows Sudha slapping Asha Rani and the grandson dragging her and placing her right on the edge of the bed. The videos of the assault are from September 19, October 21 and October 24. 

Based on a complaint by Deepshikha, a police team and some people from an NGO reached Asha Rani’s house and rescued her on Saturday. During the rescue, Ankur said that he had been serving his mother, who “wasn’t in the right mental state”. 

A police official said, “Ankur has been arrested and a case has been registered under sections linked to voluntarily causing hurt to extort property, wrongful confinement and Section 24 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act.”

Israel has “expanded” its operations in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian group Hamas saying its operatives were ready to confront attacks with “full force”. As Israeli air and ground forces stepped up their attacks on Friday night, local telecom firms and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza said that the internet and mobile phone services were cut off.

“In the last hours, we intensified the attacks in Gaza,” Israel’s military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised news briefing. He also said that Israel’s air force was conducting extensive strikes on Hamas’ tunnels and other infrastructure.

“In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight,” he said.

Since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli towns, that killed over 1,400 people, Gaza’s health ministry has said that Israel’s retaliatory bombardments have killed more than 7,300 Palestinians.

Here are the live updates on the Israel-Hamas war: