The father of the manager of the Lewiston, Maine, bar where one of Wednesday's mass shootings took place now says he's been told his son has died.
Leroy Walker, the father of the bar manager at Schemengees Bar and Grille, one of two locations targeted by the shooter, had said in the hours after the shooting he was anxiously waiting for news about his son who he fears might have been killed in the attack.
"If you had my gut right now, I feel like I'm squashed with a vice," he said. "My neck in the back of my head feels like there's a vice squashing it the other way."
"And I don't know, telling you the truth, what kind of night this is going to be from now until tomorrow when I wake up to the true facts that my son is dead -- and I know he's dead. I know it as well as I know I'm standing here telling you because he's not here and he's not at any other hospital and he's not running the streets or he would have called us, because he manages Schemengees, so I know he was there."
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Late Thursday morning, Walker confirmed to NBC News that state police told him his son, Joseph Walker, was killed.
Walker later told NBC News that he was told that Joseph tried to stop the gunman from killing others before he was fatally shot.
"His poor wife, Tracy, is just torn apart from, you know, from the news, which took 14 plus hours to tell us. And then notify us of all of this, which is just totally a nightmare," Walker told MSNBC. "We none of us slept, we were up all night. We didn't know where to go, who to turn to."
In an interview with Lester Holt, Walker said Card had been to the bar before.
"All of the people over there know him," he said. "He would actually come to Schemengees; he'd been there off and on."
Eighteen people were killed and 13 injured in the shooting, Maine Gov. Janet Mills said at a news conference. Police have yet to publicly identify any of the victims.
Walker was one of many friends and family members still waiting for word about their loved ones.
Julie, who did not want to give her last name, said her son and ex-husband were playing pool at Shemengees when the shooting happened. She was waiting outside Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston to find out if they were among the injured.
"I'm a little freaked out. You want to know, you know what I mean?" she said. "He's a young man. They shouldn't leave us hanging like this. Just tell us."
"I feel so bad for his wife. I mean, my kid, I don't know what's going on with him."
Jeremy Janes was also at Central Maine Medical Center. He said he was working at a foundry near Schemengees when they heard gunshots and locked the facility down.
“Immediately we locked down, and closed our doors and we closed the shop,” he said.
Janes said he heard his friend’s son had been shot but “he’s doing OK.”
“We’re hoping and praying that everyone’s OK, and he’s OK,” he added.
Others gathered at a reunification center that has been set up at nearby Auburn Middle School for anyone looking to reunite with family members who are unaccounted for.
"We're bringing families with their loved ones who have gone through, frankly, a traumatic -- and that word doesn't even do it justice -- a traumatic experience," Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque said. "And yeah, I saw some friends here and I saw some friends, and that was shocking."
Stories are also continuing to surface about people who survived Wednesday's deadly shooting at Shemengees and Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles away.
One bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about 10 shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping.
“I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon — he was holding a weapon — I just booked it,” he said.
Brandon said he scrambled down the length of the alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery. He was among a busload of survivors driven to the reunification center in Auburn.
“I was putting on my bowling shoes when it started. I’ve been barefoot for five hours,” he said.
Melinda Small, the owner of Legends Sports Bar and Grill, said her staff immediately locked their doors and moved all 25 customers and employees away from the doors after a customer reported hearing about the shooting at the bowling alley less than a quarter-mile away. Soon, the police flooded the roadway and a police officer eventually escorted everyone out of the building.
“I am honestly in a state of shock. I am blessed that my team responded quickly and everyone is safe,” Small said. “But at the same time, my heart is broken for this area and for what everyone is dealing with. I just feel numb.”
In a town where most everyone knows most everyone else, Mar Mcenerey told NBC News it's unfathomable that anyone would commit such a horrible act of violence.
“I’m gonna start locking my doors at night,” she said. “I’ve never locked my door once at night, I leave them wide open."
Mcenerey woke from a nap to the news of the deadly shooting last night and felt compelled to rush to the area of the shootings that killed at least a dozen people. She stopped by her mother's house on the way to make sure her doors were locked.
Living just four miles away, Mcenerey spends a lot of time in the area. Her mother's doctor's office is nearby, and the two often get something to eat at the Subway down the road from the Sparetime Recreation.
“I feel sad, like I’m probably getting ready to cry. ... I want to know who, where, when. Why, like, why would he do this?” Mcenery said. “Like why in Lewiston, Maine? ... What happened at the bowling alley or the Schemengees that would cause someone to come back and open fire like that?”
The Associated Press and NBC News contributed to this report.
