GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

Lewiston, Maine, is the latest community to suffer devastating losses from mass shootings after a gunman killed at least 18 people and injured 13 others last night.

AMNA NAWAZ: The suspect remains at large, and hundreds of officers are looking for him in a major manhunt.

The shootings are the worst mass killing in the country this year, and authorities have warned that the death toll could climb.

Laura Barron-Lopez reports from Lewiston.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Nearly 24 hours after a man opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, the sprawling manhunt is growing for the shooter.

Police say 40-year-old Robert Card is a person of interest and remains armed and dangerous.

Investigators are still trying to piece together what happened, and many questions remain.

COL. WILLIAM ROSS, Maine State Police: Several of the deceased have been identified and their family's next of kin has been notified.

Approximately eight people at this point have been identified; 10 people, 10 of these victims, still need to be identified at this time.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Maine's Governor Janet Mills said it was a dark day for her state.

GOV.

JANET MILLS (D-ME): This city did not deserve this terrible assault on its citizens, on its peace of mind, on its sense of security.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Just before 7:00 p.m. last night, that assault began inside the Just-In-Time bowling center, sending people scrambling for safety, including this man named Brandon, who says he first thought he heard balloons popping.

BRANDON, Witness: I had my back turned to the door.

And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon, he was holding a weapon, I just booked it down the lane, and I slid basically into where the pins are and climbed up to the machine and was on top of the machines for about 10 minutes, until the cops got there.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Ten-year-old Zoey Levesque was also there with her mother and was grazed by a bullet.

ZOEY LEVESQUE, Injured in Shooting: Just, like shocking.

Like, it is something that you think never would happen.

I never thought I'd grow up and get a bullet in my leg.

Why?

Like, why do people do this?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Police say, not long after that, the gunman went to Schemengees Bar and Grille and opened fire.

As news broke last night, the restaurant posted on Facebook: "My heart is crushed.

I am at a loss for words.

In a split-second, your world gets turn upside down for no good reason."

Police released a photo of an SUV parked in a nearby town that they called a vehicle of interest.

Early this morning, authorities issued more shelter-in-place advisories, not just for Lewiston, but also in the nearby towns of Lisbon and Bowdoin,.

Several schools in the area were also closed due to the manhunt.

And many residents, like 21-year-old Campbell McKendry, a senior at Bates College in Lewiston, are still trying to make sense of what happened.

How are you feeling right now as you're still sheltering in place with your roommates?

CAMPBELL MCKENDRY, College Student: I think people really haven't processed what's going on.

I mean, at the moment, 18 people are dead, which is just unfathomable in such a small and tight-knit community like Lewiston.

And I know that the loss that happened last night will be felt here for years, if not decades to come.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: McKendry lives only fives minutes from the bowling alley and says she'd often go with friends to hang out and relax there.

CAMPBELL MCKENDRY: And its just so devastating and so upsetting that that's been taken away from the Bates community and the Lewiston community by the actions of one person.

MIKE SAUSCHUCK, Commissioner, Maine Department Of Public Safety: Our reality for today is that this suspect is still at large.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Police said more than 350 state and federal law enforcement personnel are looking for Robert Card, who is said to be a firearms instructor and a member of the U.S. Army Reserve.

According to multiple reports, Card was believed to have made threats to shoot up a nearby military base and had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this summer.

Authorities would not confirm that this morning, focusing instead on the survivors and victims.

MIKE SAUSCHUCK: We want to provide community support for the victims, for the families in the communities across the state.

But we also have an incredibly strong and laser-like focus on bringing this suspect into custody and ultimately to justice.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: But many here are frustrated that they're not getting resources and answers fast enough.

SARAH, Lewiston, Maine, Resident; There's no words to describe how you feel.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: We met a woman named Sarah who has lived in Lewiston for 32 years.

Last night, she'd been at the bowling alley with her daughter and says the third-grader saw two people get shot.

SARAH: I want counseling, but there's no services here right now.

We're looking for services to get her counseling.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Wednesday's death toll is especially staggering for a state that only had 29 homicides in all of 2022.

People here are upset and angry about what they say is a lack of communication from local authorities about their loved ones and how to get help -- Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: Laura, we heard officials there saying that they're still working to identify some of the victims in this latest mass shooting in America.

You did speak with someone who lost family members, though.

Tell us what they said.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: That's right, Amna.

I spoke to Rob Young, who's originally from Maine.

He was heading here from Baltimore this morning on a flight to be next to his sister-in-law's side.

And he found out that his brother Bill Young and his nephew Aaron Young, respectively 43 years old and 14 years old, were killed at the bowling alley, Just-In-Time bowling alley, that's just down the road behind me last night.

And he said that this stuff just doesn't happen in Maine, that his sister-in-law is destroyed, that she was given false hope by state authorities because, for hours on end, she had been told that no kids had died, and then found out later this afternoon that her son, 14-year-old Aaron, had died.

And we haven't heard back from state authorities about that, Amna AMNA NAWAZ: Just another heartbreaking story on the ground there.

Laura, you spoke to so many people, including the student we heard from their, Campbell McKendry, who said it was unfathomable something like this would happen in her community.

What else did she tell you about what the experience has been like?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Campbell had heard police sirens and helicopters for hours last night as she sheltered in place, Amna.

And this is something that has become all too familiar for her family.

Her parents have been texting her nonstop, asking her if she was safe.

And this is something that they also experienced earlier this year when their other daughter, who goes to Colby College that's just a few miles north of Lewiston, was at a party where a shooting occurred.

So this is something that her family has experienced twice in just one year, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Laura Barron-Lopez reporting from Lewiston, Maine, the latest American community affected by a mass shooting.

Laura, thank you.