Ahead of 3rd anniversary, survivors of Lewiston mass shootings call for accountability
Key Takeaways i Key Takeaways are written by Maine Trust staff and highlight the most important points of this article so you can get the gist at a glance.
- Mass shooting survivors and victims’ family members gathered Wednesday in front of the media nearly three years after the Oct. 25, 2023, tragedy.
- Some survivors continue to call into question how $1.9 million of the $6.6 million raised in the aftermath of the shooting reached area nonprofits instead of victims’ families and survivors.
- They say they have been denied an audience with the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee.
LEWISTON — With the anniversary of the Oct. 25, 2023, mass shooting approaching, some victims, survivors and their families gathered at Veterans Memorial Park on Main Street to hold a news conference.
Standing in front of the cameras, Amy Sussman read the names of the 18 people killed at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille: Ronald Morin, Peyton Brewer-Ross, Joshua Seal, Bryan MacFarlane, Joseph Walker, Arthur Strout, Maxx Hathaway, Stephen Vozzella, Thomas Conrad, Michael Deslauriers II, Jason Walker, Tricia Asselin, William Young, Aaron Young, Robert Violette, Lucille Violette, William Brackett and Keith Macneir.
Sussman, who is Hathaway’s aunt, said the grieving families and survivors are still seeking answers on how the Maine Community Foundation handled collecting and disbursing the $6.6 million Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund.
What they are looking for, she said, is accountability, transparency and fairness.
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Some $4.7 million of the Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund was granted to victims’ families and survivors; $1.9 million went to 29 area nonprofits.
Speaking at the news conference were survivors Jennifer Zanca, Destiny Johnson, Danielle Chabot and Strout’s father, Arthur Barnard.
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Zanca, who was shot at Schemengees Bar and Grille, learned a year later she would need more surgery and, by the end of it, owed $93,000 in hospital bills that she said her insurance company denied.
“The FBI, Homeland Security came to my home and told me I would never have to worry about hospital bills,” Zanca said. “Except I did.”
Jennifer Zanca speaks Wednesday afternoon in Veterans Memorial Park in Lewiston during a press conference addressing the frustration some victims, families and friends of the Oct. 25, 2023, mass shootings in Lewiston have with the allocation of donated funds. Zanca was shot during the rampage. (Russ Dillingham/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
Zanca said it was a year later that she learned about the distribution of funds occurring in the months following the shooting.
“You mean to tell me that 29 nonprofits received $65,000 each, that only a few had anything to do with the shooting, while victims that were shot received less than half that amount from the Maine Community Foundation?” Zanca asked. “Some nonprofits received nine times the amount than victims that fled from flying bullets, while others saved lives and witnessed the carnage that is forever embedded in their memories.”
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Nearly three years after the shootings, some victims and survivors are still asking the Maine Attorney General’s Office and the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee to hear their side of the story. Sussman said survivors have also tried unsuccessfully to meet with Gov. Janet Mills.
Attorney General Aaron Frey sat before the Government Oversight Committee on Sept. 16 and told legislators that the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability cannot investigate the handling of funds because the funds were not handled by a government entity.
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Frey also told legislators the only recourse for an investigation would be through the Maine Charitable Solicitations Act; however, he said, no complaints have been filed through that act.
The Maine Community Foundation has publicly defended its handling of the donations since as early as 2024, saying families and survivors were notified that the Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund would be two separate funds: one for victims and another for nonprofit organizations, as suggested by nationally recognized victims’ advocate, Jeff Dion.
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The foundation said it did not take administrative fees so all donations could go to families and community recovery efforts.
Maine Community Foundation said the Attorney General’s Office found that donor intent had been followed and that there were no concerns about how the funds were collected and distributed.
Kim Pfusch holds a sign Wednesday afternoon in Veterans Memorial Park in Lewiston during a press conference addressing the frustration victims, families and friends of the 2023 mass shootings in Lewiston have with the allocation of donated funds. Pfusch has a loved one who lost a son in the shootings and is angry that many victims and families of victims received significantly less money than some nonprofit organizations. (Russ Dillingham/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
Sussman said victims’ families and survivors feel as though they have been silenced by the Government Oversight Committee from giving their own account of what they were initially told by the Maine Community Foundation.
“The Maine Community Foundation gave us this document on their own letterhead,” Sussman said, holding up a binder and pointing to a page, “saying that 100% of the Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund was for the victims’ families and survivors. We were sent emails saying (the same).
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“What we didn’t know was that the Maine Community Foundation was collecting money for nonprofits on the backs of the 18 people who were murdered and the 118 who survived … in the worst mass violence event in the state’s history.”
Victims’ families and survivors learned a week ago that the Government Oversight Committee will not hear from groups of victims and survivors in a meeting after having several requests ignored, Sussman said.
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“We recently learned that one of the co-chairs and members of the committee work for or are on the boards of nonprofits that received grants from the Maine Community Foundation,” Sussman said. “This conflict of interest is prominent in the ruling party of the state Legislature.”
In April, some 57 victims’ family members and survivors sent a complaint, accompanied by new documents, to the Maine Office of the Attorney General to reopen its investigation. They declined, Sussman said.
Amy Sussman speaks Wednesday afternoon during a press conference in Veterans Memorial Park in Lewiston. Sussman lost a nephew during the rampage. In the background are survivors of the attack and relatives of victims. (Russ Dillingham/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
“True accountability means that no other family or individual will have to go through what we have in the aftermath of a tragedy at the hands of an unethical nonprofit. … That no other family or individual will have to get up off their knees from grief and suffering to fight for what is right because the ruling party in this state of Maine will not help us.”
Sussman said she recently learned of two new complaints being filed with the Attorney General’s Office.
Lewiston mass shooting survivor Destiny Johnson hugs Arthur Barnard Wednesday afternoon during a press conference in Veterans Memorial Park in Lewiston. Barnard lost his son in the attack. (Russ Dillingham/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
“We are continuing to demand accountability. … It is being swept under the rug by the governor, the attorney general, the Government Oversight Committee and the city of Lewiston,” Sussman said. “The actions of the Maine Community Foundation have hurt not only us, but all nonprofits.”
“We are on the right side of this,” Sussman said. “We’re not giving up and we’re not going away.”
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Tagged: key takeaways, Mass Shooting Lewiston Maine, Oct 25 killings
Joe Charpentier joined the Sun Journal in 2022 and covers the communities of Auburn, Lewiston and Poland. His previous experience was in a variety of rural Midcoast beats which included government, education,. More by Joe Charpentier
