Before taking questions from reporters during a press conference at Gillette Stadium on Friday, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick took some moments to address the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, earlier this week. A gunman killed 18 people at two separate locations in the city.
“Our thoughts and prayers to people in Maine. Obviously a tragic situation,” Belichick said. “They’re great fans of ours, great friends up there. And Maine’s a great place. Obviously feel bad for the pain and situation they’re going through. Lewiston, Bowdoin, lot of connections, lot of friends of mine went there, know the area pretty well. Very sad, difficult. We’re thinking of you down here with the Patriots.”
The mass shooting hitting close to home for Belichick and the entire organization brought back memories of another mass shooting in New England. In 2012, 26 people — including 20 children — were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
“It could be any community, we all know that,” Belichick said. “The fact that it’s our fans, our area, kind of like the Connecticut situation a few years back — not the same, but just sad, tragic. And it sounds like it’s not over yet.”
As of Friday morning, the suspected perpetrator remains at large.
The mass shooting in the town was the 565th of its kind so far in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. October 25 was the 298th day of the year.
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