According to the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf , at least 4 people out of the eighteen who were killed in the mass shootings at the bar and bowling alley in Lewiston belonged to the deaf community.
Maine mass shootings- 4 victims belong to the deaf community
On Wednesday, October 25 a mass shooting at Sparetime Bowling Alley and a bar took at least 18 lives and injured 13 people. According to sources, the bowling alley was holding a youth league on the day the shooting took place.
Additionally, the bar was holding a cornhole tournament where sign language interpreter Joshua Seal (aged 36) was playing with his friends. Â
The news of his passing was confirmed by his wife Elizabeth in a Facebook post where she remembered Seal as her best friend, a wonderful husband, a great boss and interpreter. Joshua became more known as an interpreter after the pandemic briefings of Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The other victims of the shootings who also belonged to the Maine deaf community include Billy Brackett (aged 48); Steve Vozzella (aged 45); and Bryan MacFarlane (aged 41). MacFarlane had attended the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf while Vozzella’s wife Megan is an Alumnus at the school. Meanwhile Seal had 4 children who were deaf, and Brackett had not only attended the school but also had a daughter who was at her early intervention.
The Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf are located on Mackworth Island in Falmouth, near Portland was closed on Friday because of the shootings but according to Karen Hopkins, the executive director, mourners collected at Mackworth island to grieve and share stories.
The prime suspect of these shootings, Robert Card was found dead on Friday after a strenuous man-hunt of two days. The police and other law enforcement agents are yet to discern the motive behind these shootings. This shooting is the 36th shooting that has happened in the US this year and the second largest in the city.
