Robin Payne lives just a few hundred feet from Schemengees Bar and Grille, where eight people were found dead and even more injured. Payne didn't hear gunshots but said her street was flooded with dozens of law enforcement vehicles for hours.
[Ads /]
"There were dozens of police vehicles right in front of my house. And, you know, I myself and the neighbors are kind of poking our heads out, like, well, what's happening?" she said.
She said despite being the second largest city in Maine, Lewiston's a small community -- and one that's been rattled by the events of the last 24 hours.
"I feel like the whole state of Maine is a small town. And I think probably everyone in the state is going to know someone that was impacted," she said.
Meredith Finn was born in Lewiston but graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1989. Now, she runs Maine's UNC alumni club.
"It's just shocking, and it's breaking my heart," Finn said.
Finn said it's even more heartbreaking knowing the town will never be the same.
"They'll always be thinking in the back of their head if I go to this public place, what might happen," she said. "And that's always been the case. We've always known that could happen. But the fact that it did happen here, it on such a large scale, it leaves a wound."
Those with NC ties on edge, speaking out after Maine mass shooting
[Ads /]
Now -- as the manhunt for suspect Robert Card continues -- law enforcement up and down the East Coast are on high alert. That includes the I-95 corridor in Nash County.
"He is in a database that he is wanted this time because we know who he is," said Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone. "Our proactive approach is working on I-95. You got to think in less than 18 hours, he can be in Nash County,"
But with Card still at large nearly 24 hours after the massacre, people like Payne remain on edge -- unsure of what could happen next.
"It's very scary. He could he could be anywhere," she said. "He could totally disappear or, you know, God forbid, ambush someone. And I think that's kind of in the back of everybody's mind."
Kristina Glanville moved to Raleigh with her wife five years ago and said she grew up 45 minutes south of Lewistonin in Portland. She said her parents still live there.
[Ads /]
"As soon as I heard the news from my parents, I hopped right onto social media, to see how my friends and family had been doing," Glanville said.
Glanville said her mother wouldn't let her father go walk the dog because they were worried about the manhunt.
The shooting in her home state brought her back to the events just a year ago in Raleigh's Hedingham neighborhood and the unease of it all.
"Everything is so difficult in this day and age of social media to find out what the true details are but when it hits so close to home like that, it's scary," Glanville said.
She said she hopes the shooting is not a defining factor for Maine.
"It's a very small state and I don't want that to impact how people are being viewed," she said."Definitely the people there are very strong and resilient. I've already seen that in the face of this tragedy...With that resiliency, they're going to be able to bounce back and show this doesn't define us this isn't who we are, this type of thing is very rare there."