The sister of one of the 18 people killed in the horrific double mass shooting in Maine on Wednesday night described the devastating moment she lost sight of her sister in the chaos that followed the sound of gunshots.
Bobbi Nichols was bowling at Just-In-Time Recreation with her sister, Tricia Asselin, when a man armed with an assault rifle, believed to be Richard Card, who remains at large, burst into the family bowling alley in Lewiston and started shooting. .
Asselin, a part-time employee at the bowling alley, had the night off but was competing in a league with her sister. Nichols made it out alive, but Asselin, 53, did not.
“We heard a loud noise and I wasn’t sure what it was until I heard another gunshot and then I knew,” Nichols told CNN in an emotional interview Thursday night.
Everyone started running out of the building and people were trampling on each other, he said. In the chaos, she lost track of her sister, who was bowling a few lanes away.
“I couldn’t see her and everyone was running and I was stuck in the crowd stomping,” Nichols said.
He said he managed to get out of the building but heard what sounded like more gunshots outside in the dark.
Bobbi Nichols was bowling at Just-In-Time Recreation with her sister when a man armed with an assault rifle burst in.CNN
“We just kept running and running and running,” he said. “And it was dark… I ran as far as I could until there was a fence and there were some trees and a group of us were hiding behind the trees wondering what was going on.”
When police arrived, Nichols said everyone came out of the woods with their hands up.
“[The cops] They told us to keep walking and walking and I kept asking, ‘Where is my sister? Where is my sister? She’s here,’” she said, breaking down. “I just wanted to be with my sister.”
Tricia Asselin died during the shooting after her sister lost sight of her during the chaos.CNN
Nichols said he had no idea where his sister was or that she had been shot.
“I didn’t know I was hurt until two hours later,” she said. “Someone came out and said that he called 911 and when he called 911 to save everyone, he lost his life because of it.”
Asselin, a mother who worked three jobs, allegedly ran to the counter to call 911 when the gunman shot and killed her, her family said.
“My sister is a hero,” Nichols said. “She was a hero.”
Nicholas said his sister was a part-time employee at the bowling alley and had the night off but was competing as part of a league. cnn
Asselin leaves behind a son, who turned 25 the day before the shooting that killed his mother, Nichols added.
“It feels so lost,” he said.
Asselin’s brother, DJ Johnson, said his son was “his entire life, from the day he was born until yesterday.”
“She did everything for him…he was her world,” he told CNN.
Asselin was “the rock of the family” and “kept everyone on an even keel,” Johnson said.
“If there was an argument, she would be the one to calm everyone down,” he said. “If someone was having a bad day, she would be on the phone to talk to you about it.”
Johnson said she wasn’t surprised her sister tried to help when she was killed.
“That was just her. She wasn’t going to run away. She was going to try to help,” she said.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn