A 10-year-old girl who was injured in the Maine mass shooting has asked a heartbreaking question about gun violence in the US.
The manhunt for Robert Card - who opened fire at a bar and a bowling alley on Wednesday (25 October) - is entering its second day.
The incident has turned state’s second-largest city, Lewiston, into chaos as police continue to search for the person of interest, while residents were ordered to shelter in place.
A police bulletin said Card served in the US Army and had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023.
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Card remains on the loose after killing 18 people and injuring 13 others.
10-year-old Zoey Levesque was one of those injured by the gunman as she attended practice with her youth league at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston on Wednesday night (October 26).
After Card stormed in and opened fire, one of the bullets grazed the girl's knee as she and her mother Meghan Hutchinson ran for cover.
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Speaking to ABC News following the shocking incident, Zoey was struggling to come to terms with the fact she joins a growing list of those impacted by gun crimes in the US.
“Why do people do this?” she asked.
"I never thought I’d grow up and get a bullet in my leg.
"Why? Why do people do this? I don’t really know what to say."
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With the little girl understandably upset, her mother then went into further detail of the attack.
Ms Hutchinson recalled how a 'loud pop' made everyone run for their lives.
She said: "When I turned around, I saw the shooter right behind me. He had just come in the door."
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The mother and daughter ran towards a set of doors between the bowling lanes, when one of the bullets grazed Zoey's knee.
"My pants had, like, a bullet thing in it and then I looked and it wasn’t deep. It was just like a scrape," the young girl said.
"I was scared, but it didn’t hurt, and I didn’t know what happened until I started bleeding.
"I wasn’t worried about that. I was more worried about, like, am I going to live? Am I going to make it out of here? Like, what’s going to happen? Are the cops going to come?"
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The pair managed to make it to the back room with other families where they were able to barricade themselves from the gunman.
Callum Jones