Overview

• Celebrated actor Patrick Dempsey has made an impassioned plea on Instagram following the mass shooting in his hometown of Lewiston, Maine, expressing profound shock and sadness like many others.
• The catastrophic event resulted in 18 fatalities and an additional 13 injured, which Dempsey described as a 'senseless act,' calling on the close-knit community of Maine to rally support for the victims and their families.
• Dempsey, a local advocate with deep ties to Lewiston, runs the Dempsey Center in the city, a non-profit offering free comprehensive cancer care in honor of his mother who battled ovarian cancer. The actor had temporarily closed the center in response to the shootings.
• Officials are engaged in an active manhunt for suspect Robert Card, a U.S. Army reservist who authorities have described as armed and dangerous; his involvement has initiated a widespread shelter-in-place order in Lewiston.
• Maine's tragedy forms part of a much larger national issue, as this is the 566th mass shooting in America for this year alone, revealing the serious intensity of gun violence in the country.