In the wake of what is now the deadliest mass shooting in the country in 2023, first-hand eyewitnesses to the bowling alley shooting have begun coming forward to tell their stories. Here are a few of those stories from various sources:
Chad Vincent:
Chad Vincent was in the fifth frame of his weekly bowling league game at Just-In-Time Recreation on Wednesday night when he heard a loud sound.
“I thought it was, like, a table crashing on the floor or something,” he said. “Nobody really screamed. Nobody knew what it was.”
But then, perhaps five seconds later, came another bang: “One of my bowling partners said, ‘Hey, that’s a gun! That’s gunshots!’”
Mr. Vincent, 45, ran toward the back exit. As he was escaping, he called 911.
He and most other members of the league made it out of the building and through the woods to an Italian restaurant, Mr. Vincent said. They locked themselves in for maybe five to 10 minutes before their loved ones started arriving to pick them up.
Mr. Vincent said he felt lucky to have been playing in Lanes 1 and 2, the farthest ones from the front door. There were 30 to 50 other bowlers in the alley, he estimated, in addition to about 26 people from the league. Among those playing on Wednesday night were some children, perhaps teenagers, he said.
He said he knew at least three of the seven people who the authorities have said were killed at the bowling alley. One was a woman who was in the league and also worked behind the bowling alley’s front counter. Another was a man whom he heard had tried to charge the gunman.
“Everybody out front took the brunt” of the attack, said Mr. Vincent, a self-employed contractor who lives in Auburn, just across the river from Lewiston.
As he and others fled the scene, he said, they were in disbelief.
“We’re going: ‘This is Maine,’” he said. “This is not happening. This stuff doesn’t happen in Maine. Everybody’s nice. We usually don’t have problems.”
Brandon:
One bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about 10 shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping.
"Thought it was a balloon," Brandon said. "I had my back turned to the door. As soon as I turned and saw that 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."
Brandon said he scrambled down the length of the alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery. He was among a busload of survivors who were driven to a middle school in the neighboring city of Auburn to be reunited with family and friends.
"I was putting on my bowling shoes when it started. I've been barefoot for five hours," he said.
Zoey Levesque:
Ten-year-old Zoey Levesque, who was there with her mother, told WMTW-TV she was grazed by a bullet.
"It's just like, shocking," she said.
"I never thought I'd grow up and get a bullet in my leg," she said. "Like, why do people do this? I was more worried about, like, am I going to live and going to make it out of here? Like, what's going to happen? Are the cops going to come?"
Megan Hutchinson:
Mother Meghan Hutchinson said, "When I turned around, I saw the shooter. ... I don't know if that was just a warning shot or if he shot somebody with that [bullet]."
"Between the lanes there's some swinging doors where they keep all the mechanical stuff out back, so we kind of all just ran that way," she said. "We barricaded in there and another parent was in the room with me. She had a phone, she called 911."
Riley Dumont:
Riley Dumont said she was at the bowling alley when she heard a loud bang. She said her father, a retired police officer, corralled them into a corner and put protection in front of them, including "tables and a big bench that the kids were hiding behind."
"I was laying on top of my daughter. My mother was laying on top of me," said Dumont.
"It felt like it lasted a lifetime," she added. "I just remember people sobbing and crying."
DJ Johnson - Brother of victim Tricia Asselin:
Tricia Asselin, 53, worked part-time at Just-In-Time Recreation in Lewiston, but was there bowling on Wednesday night when a gunman came in and opened fire, her brother told CNN Thursday.
“What I'm told is that when it all started happening, she ran up to the counter and started to call 911, and that's when she was shot,” DJ Johnson told CNN. “That was just her. She wasn't going to run. She was going to try and help.”
His other sister was also at the bowling alley but she was able to escape, he said.
Johnson spoke to CNN while on a flight to Maine to identify his sister and be with the rest of their family.
He called Asselin his “baby sister” and said they were very close. He said her adult son is devastated by the loss.
“She and I talked probably three or four times a week and we texted every day,” he said. “Her son was her entire life. From the day he was born to yesterday. She did everything for him … he was her world,” Johnson said.
Asselin “was the rock of the family” and “kept everyone on an even keel," Johnson said.
“If there was an argument going on, she would be the one to calm everyone down. If somebody was having a bad day, she would be right on the phone to talk to you about it,” he said.
