James Taylor helps Lewiston kick off 1st soccer sport after mass taking pictures
LEWISTON, Maine — Singer James Taylor carried out an acoustic model of the nationwide anthem forward of a rivalry soccer sport that kicked off one other tentative step in Lewiston’s restoration from Maine’s worst mass taking pictures.
Often called the Battle of the Bridge, the sport options cross-river rivals Lewiston Excessive College and Edward Little Excessive College of Auburn. Final Friday’s sport between the Blue Devils and the Pink Eddies was postponed after the communities have been locked down whereas police looked for 40-year-old Robert R. Card II of Bowdoin.
He was discovered lifeless Friday, days after taking pictures and killing 18 individuals and injuring 13 others at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston. Residents in each Lewiston and Auburn misplaced household and buddies within the Oct. 25 taking pictures.
“Phrases can not specific the super grief our communities are experiencing over the tragedy of this previous week,” a speaker mentioned over the general public tackle system. “As a neighborhood we’re shocked. We mourn the tragic lack of life, lives and accidents, and our deepest sympathies exit to the victims, their households and buddies.”
Then the particular person learn out the names of the 18 who have been killed, saying, “Allow us to not overlook these names.”
Followers and college students decked out at school colours started arriving about two hours earlier than kickoff to snag good seats. Blue and white balloons hung from a fence close to the sector, and a banner displayed the interlocked first letters of Lewiston and Auburn and the phrase, “We stand collectively.”
Among the many first to reach was Mark Barrett, a 58-year-old automobile salesman from Lewiston who knew two individuals who have been injured within the taking pictures.
“It’s like they are saying, ‘Lewiston sturdy.’ We’re all right here collectively as one,” Barrett mentioned. “That is in all probability the proper setting, as a result of it’s towards your crosstown rival. It’s going to be an important sport. It’s going to be a sport of unity.”
Story by Michael Casey, The Related Press
