In those early moments up in Maine on Wednesday night, when the scope of the tragedy was still coming into focus, one thing became increasingly clear - police in Lewiston were going to need more help, including from Massachusetts.
"Any chief probably looked at what was going on there and thought, 'oh my God' it could happen here and what can I do to help," said Salem Police Chief Lucas Miller.
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For Miller, it was personal. He trained with Lewiston's police chief and considers him a close friend. Salem Police immediately sentĀ help.
"Particularly where you have smaller jurisdictions and potentially big events, that sense of community amongst law enforcement is really very, very important," Miller said.
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Melrose Police Chief Kevin Faller also received a request for help, sending its K9 team as part of the regional ATF Task Force. Melrose's K9 team specializes in collecting ballisticsĀ and proceeding crime scenes.
"If we have the opportunity to send personnel to somewhere else, we know we are going to do it because we know they count on us just as much as we count on them," Faller said.Ā
"The first thing that came to mind, what if that happened to my family or someone in my city, the second thing I thought was I am a chief of police how would I handle that?" he added.
The nature of the Lewiston tragedy also created unique challenges - from the two large crime scenes to the two-day manhunt for the gunman. Tim Gallagher is a former FBI special agent in charge and current managing director for Nardello and Co.
"Not only do you need additional resources because the local police department, even state police are going to be somewhat overwhelmed at that point, with multiple crime scenes and looking for the alleged killer at that point," he said.
Gallagher says the manhunt in particular is very labor intensive, and considering the danger, police up there wanted to rotate in and out officers to keep everyone fresh. All that requires a lot of manpower.
"Not only do you need more officers, you need specialized units, you are dealing here with a search in a river, densely wooded areas, you need officers who are trained to be searching in those areas, and have the equipment and specialized techniques," he said.
It wasn't just the police. Boston MedFlight says it sent two of its helicopters up to Maine on Wednesday night.
"In response to the horrific mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, on Oct. 25, Boston MedFlight mobilized a pair of helicopters to assist and assessed regional hospital capacity in support of LifeFlight of Maine as they quickly brought in additional medical crew members and resources for patient care at Central Maine Medical Center," Boston MedFlight CEO Maura Hughes said in a statement. "This coordination and cooperation in a time of crisis reflected decades of partnership and demonstrates the essential nature and need for critical care transport services across the New England region. Our hearts are with the people of Maine who suffered this senseless tragedy."
