Sam Luebbert, 26, of Auburn, witnessed the shooting in Naples on Tuesday and provided first aid to the victim until paramedics arrived. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
Sam Luebbert and his date were among the more than 1,000 people who crowded the Naples Causeway on Tuesday evening to watch the town’s Fourth of July fireworks. The sky was not yet dark when several blasts rang out just after 7 p.m.
Luebbert, 26, watched from yards away as a man shot at a fleeing teenager, then turned and ran through a mass of panicking onlookers.
“There was a huge, huge crowd,” said Luebbert, who said he provided first aid to the victim. “I’m honestly very surprised and thankful that no one else got shot.”
Alexzander Goodwin Photo courtesy of Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office is still searching for the suspect, whom they identified as Alexzander Goodwin, 18, of Bridgton.
Luebbert said the victim told him he was 16 years old and from Westbrook. Police have only identified him as a “juvenile male.” He suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to Bridgton Hospital and then to Maine Medical Center in Portland by LifeFlight helicopter, police said Tuesday night.
Police asked the public to share any information about Goodwin’s location but warned people not to approach him. They described Goodwin as 5 feet, 8 inches tall with blue eyes and blonde hair. The Sebago Fire Department warned the public that he still may be armed with a 9 mm handgun.
The shooting was just one of several incidents of gun violence across the country that took place at Fourth of July celebrations this weekend. Shootings in Washington, D.C, Louisiana, Florida, Philadelphia, Texas, and Baltimore killed more than a dozen and wounded almost 60 people, The Associated Press reported.
‘IT WAS A STAMPEDE’
Luebbert, who lives in Auburn, said he and his date were going to watch the fireworks from the balcony of Rick’s Cafe. But just before they reached the restaurant’s doors they heard yelling behind them near the intersection of Route 302 and Sebago Road.
Luebbert said he turned around just in time to see a man pull a handgun from his backpack and fire about five shots toward the victim, who had tried to run toward Long Lake. The victim was hit twice, Luebbert said, knocking him to the ground in the middle of the road.
As the shooter fled west, Luebbert ran to the victim, carried him back to the sidewalk in front of the cafe, and began applying pressure to the more serious of his two injuries: a gunshot wound from a bullet that entered his right shoulder and exited near his armpit. A second bullet grazed the victim’s leg, Luebbert said.
Luebbert estimates he kept pressure on the wound for about 15 minutes until first responders took over. Around him, hundreds of people who had come out to celebrate the holiday raced to take cover anywhere they could find it.
“As soon as everything went down, everybody just started running,” he said. “It was a stampede.”
In the aftermath, Luebbert said he learned more about the incident from a friend of the victim who gave a statement to police. Luebbert believes he had been fighting with the shooter behind Rick’s Cafe shortly before the shooting.
Wayne Warren, CEO of the company that owns Rick’s Cafe, wrote in a statement Wednesday that the shooting did not take place on property owned by the restaurant and declined to answer questions about what happened.
Because of incorrect information provided to the newspaper, this story was updated at 4 p.m. July 6 to correct the suspect’s name. Police were searching for Alexzander Goodwin.
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