LEWISTON, Maine — At first, Justin Juray could not fathom re-entering his beloved bowling alley, much less reopening it after a gunman’s rampage there in October left several dead.
“I had some guilt,” said Juray, who bought Just-In-Time Recreation in Lewiston with his wife, Samantha, in May 2021.
“I couldn’t see myself inviting or asking people to come back in here if I couldn’t keep them safe the first time,” he said.
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But as the couple contemplated the catastrophe in the weeks that followed Maine’s deadliest mass shooting in which 18 people died, at the bowling alley and a nearby bar, they realized they couldn’t abandon the business for a simple reason: the need to honor the lives lost.
Now, the thwack of bowling balls and falling pins will fill Just-In-Time again when it reopens on May 3 at 10 a.m.
“I could hear Bob Violette just telling me, ‘You can’t give up a key,’” Juray said, referring to the bowling youth league coach who was killed in the massacre along with his wife, Lucy Violette.
“He dedicated so much of his own personal time to teach kids — just voluntary, really no money, no anything,” said Juray, adding, “He was a huge influence on changing my mind.”
Justin and Samantha Juray were at the bowling alley on the evening that Robert Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist, opened fire there before going to Schemengees Bar and Grille and killing several more people. The shooting spree sparked a multistate two-day manhunt that ended when Card was found dead by suicide.
Police documents released later said that the gunman’s mental health had been deteriorating and that he believed several local establishments, the bowling alley and bar among them, were broadcasting claims he was a pedophile.
The bowling alley, which had been in business for decades before Juray bought it, was hosting a practice for kids in…
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