Madawaska native amongst survivors of Lewiston taking pictures
MADAWASKA, Maine – Madawaska native Ben Dyer is among the many surviving victims of final week’s mass taking pictures in Lewiston.
It was the deadliest taking pictures in Maine in trendy historical past and it left 18 folks useless and 13 injured. Police discovered accused shooter Robert R. Card II, 40, of Bowdoin useless from an obvious self-inflicted gunshot wound on Friday night time.
Dyer was collaborating in a cornhole occasion at Schemengees Bar and Grille on Wednesday night time when the taking pictures occurred. Card opened fireplace in Schemengees, a Lincoln Road institution, after concentrating on the Simply-In-Time Recreation bowling alley.
Dyer was rushed to Central Maine Medical Middle and positioned on a ventilator. His sister, Emily Braley, began a GoFundMe marketing campaign to help in Dyer’s restoration.
In simply 4 days, the fundraiser has seen greater than 1,000 donations totaling virtually $100,000.
“We by no means anticipated it,” Braley stated. “We’re extraordinarily grateful, and it speaks volumes of who Ben is, and the way he’s as an individual.”
Braley stated Dyer is beneficiant, and that he loves to speak to folks. Dyer now lives in Auburn and works at Poland Spring.
“He’s an individual that might provide you with his shirt,” Braley stated. “In case you want somebody, he would bounce up and say ‘What do you want? How can I do it?’ He’s simply a kind of folks.”
On Friday, two days after the taking pictures, Dyer was taken off the ventilator. Braley stated his first phrases had been, “I wish to stay.”
Braley, in a Monday replace to the GoFundMe web page, wrote that Dyer is out of the intensive care unit, however that he nonetheless has a protracted highway forward. Cash from the fundraiser will assist pay for payments that aren’t coated by Dyer’s insurance coverage.
“Ben has a protracted highway forward of him, and monetary worries don’t should be one,” Braley wrote. “In case you can’t assist financially, that’s okay, please pray.”
She stated that she by no means may have imagined that this is able to occur.
“It’s one thing you watch on TV, and also you by no means anticipate that it’s going to impression your life,” she stated.
Braley stated Dyer’s household is extraordinarily grateful for the outpouring of assist from the neighborhood in addition to Poland Spring and CMMC.
“We don’t even have phrases to explain the issues that they’ve accomplished and the assist that they’ve given us,” she stated.
Now, Dyer’s household is awaiting his restoration.
“We would like him to know that he’s secure, and that we’re all right here, and he does,” Braley stated. “However we all know that our longest highway forward is his restoration.”
