Four communities in Maine were closed to hunting starting Saturday, the day the annual firearms season for deer begins, as authorities searched for suspected mass killer Robert Card.

Card’s body was found in Lisbon later Friday night. When the hunting ban might be lifted wasn’t clear.

No hunting of any kind will be allowed in Bowdoin, Lewiston, Lisbon and Monmouth until further notice, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said in a statement Friday just before 5 p.m. The statement said the ban in the four towns “includes all hunting activities, for any species, by any method, and by use of any implement.”

Shelter-in-place orders that were in place for Lewiston and other communities in Androscoggin and Sagadahoc counties were rescinded by Maine State Police on Friday.

The annual deer hunt for the rest of the state opens a half-hour before sunrise on Saturday for Maine residents only. There is no hunting allowed in Maine on Sundays. Non-resident license holders can join the hunt on Monday. The regular firearms season ends on Nov. 25.

Having the ban affect only four towns was “the prudent thing to do,” said Mark Latti, communications director for IFW.

“We talked with the state police, we talked with the attorney general’s office and the governor’s office to try to determine what was the best course of action and we felt in talking to the state police limiting (the hunting ban) to these four towns where they were actively searching was the best thing to do.”

This year 108,070 antlerless deer permits were issued by the state. There are about 240,000 licensed hunters in Maine, Latti said, about 180,000 to 200,000 of whom hunt deer. An antlerless permit allows a hunter to harvest a doe and a buck with at least a three-inch antler.

Latti said Maine has over 17 million forested acres, almost all open to hunting.

“I understand this is disappointing to some people who live and hunt in those specific towns but at the same time we need to insure the safety of law enforcement personnel and it’s not like we’re canceling the season or canceling it statewide. There are plenty of areas to go hunting,” Latti said.

Earlier Friday, two moderators of the nearly 49,000-member Facebook group called Maine Deer Hunters said limited hunting bans would be an appropriate response, especially because hunters have already been in Maine’s woods since the shootings. Seasons for deer hunting with bows and crossbows, and firearm hunting for other species including turkeys, rabbits, bears, game birds and moose, have been open.

“I was hunting (Thursday). I shot a turkey,” said Ian Sawyer, 40, of York, a deer hunter and Maine guide. “I live far enough away where I would not end up seeing this guy.”

Sawyer said he would have understood if deer season had been delayed, partly because on opening day morning, “you hear gun shot after gun shot,” and that could lead to unwarranted distress calls to police.

“We need to give law enforcement the space to do their jobs,” Sawyer said.

Wayne O’Brien, 64, of Windham, an avid hunter for 55 years, said he expected to be in the woods on Saturday morning for the traditional start of the deer season.

O’Brien said allowing law enforcement to prohibit hunting in active search areas was “common sense,” but it would have been overreach to shut down the entire state.

He noted that in 2018, when a 200-officer search team was looking for John D. Williams, the convicted killer of Somerset County Sheriff’s Cpl. Eugene Cole, a limited area was closed to turkey hunters. Williams was found four days after he shot Cole.

“Yes, you have to be careful but I also believe you have to fight the evil with normal,” O’Brien said. “I would say open the state (to hunting) and allow us to go on with normal lives and let the state police put out warnings where we can’t hunt and trespass.”

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