LEWISTON, Maine — One of the 18 people killed in the Oct. 25 mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, was a commercial truck driver.
According to an NPR report, Bryan MacFarlane was playing in the cornhole tournament for the deaf at Schemengees Bar & Grille when he was killed, his sister Keri Brooks told CNN.
Brooks later told The Daily Moth, an online news outlet featuring news for the deaf community, that there were nine deaf people at the bar that night.
MacFarlane, who was 40 and would have turned 41 in December, was on the same team as Billy Brackett, Steve Vozzella and Joshua Seale, the Lewiston Sun Journal reported. Brooks said the men all knew each other through the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf.
She told the paper that MacFarlane grew up in Portland, Maine, but had only recently moved back to the state to be near his mother. She described him as an outdoorsy man, who lived camping, fishing and riding his motorcycle.
Brooks added that MacFarlane also loved spending time with deaf friends and his dog, M&M, who was named after his favorite candy and regularly joined him on the road as a commercial trucker.
She told CNN that MacFarlane was one of the first deaf people in the state of Vermont to get his commercial trucking driver’s license.
“Many states don’t let deaf drive trucks so I’m very proud of him for achieving that. He worked as a truck driver for several years,” she said.
Authorities say a U.S. Army reservist, 40-year-old Robert Card of Bowdoin, Maine, was responsible for the shooting. After a days-long manhunt, he was found dead on Oct. 27.
The shooting in Maine’s second-largest city is the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. The database includes every mass killing since 2006 from all weapons in which four or more people, excluding the offender, were killed within a 24-hour time frame.
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Sad to hear about the Deaf Truck my condolences to his family .On the other end I would like to know how a deaf person can hold a CDL ??
Rudy possibly sensors to hear ,and alert driver.
a satellite 🛰 in space;hearing sound is not difficult for AI on earth
🙏 driver.