Days after 18 people were killed in Lewiston, Maine, an 18-year-old guy was detained in a town less than 80 miles away after officials discovered a photo of him armed in a Walmart parking lot threatening another mass shooting on the internet.
According to various news agencies, the image, which was uploaded on the social media website Snapchat, showed the adolescent equipped with a pistol and ammo. The snapshot was taken in a Walmart parking lot in the small Maine hamlet of Palmyra, according to the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, and was captioned “Lewiston Part 2.”
Palmyra is 80 miles from Lewiston.
Palmyra is about 80 miles northeast of Lewiston, the location of this year’s bloodiest mass murder in the United States.
Authorities had identified Robert Card, a man with a military background, as the suspected lone shooter in two shootings last Wednesday, one at a bowling alley and the second at a pub. Card, 40, was discovered dead Friday after a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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According to several reports quoting a media statement from the department, the suspect in Palmyra was detained on Sunday after the sheriff’s office was told of the teenager’s threatening post.
Deputies from the Sheriff’s Office grab a firearm.
According to media sources, the man was identified as 18-year-old Michael Bowden, a resident of Etna in the neighboring county of Penobscot.
Bowden was fired from Walmart in 2021, but investigators discovered that he had lately been observed in the store’s parking lot “on a nightly basis,” according to media reports citing the media release.
Bowden texted the photo mentioning the Lewiston shooting to a Walmart employee after snapping it, Somerset County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Mike Mitchell said centralmaine.com.
“They were communicating back and forth through Snapchat messaging, and (the employee) basically said, ‘What is this?'” Mitchell told the publication. “We take this extremely seriously. You have to these days.”
According to reports, Bowden was detained at his house and charged with aggravated reckless conduct and domestic violence threats. Investigators also confiscated a bolt action hunting rifle, which they believe is the weapon depicted in Bowden’s Snapchat picture.
