Lewiston shooting survivor Ben Dyer rebuilds his life with unbreakable resolve

By Scott McDonnell

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    AUBURN, Maine (WMTW) — For Ben Dyer, each day since the Lewiston mass shooting has been a step toward healing wounds, both seen and unseen.

“It’s a matter of being able to do things, or learn things — or relearn to do things,” Dyer said.

It was a passion for cornhole that brought Dyer to Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant on the night of Oct. 25, 2023.

“I actually was there as a sub. So I was there just out of circumstance, just playing the game, and all hell broke loose,” Dyer said.

Surrounded by dozens of others in the middle of that chaotic hell, Dyer looked up and saw the gunman.

“The only thing I truly remember is looking Robert Card in the face when he took my finger off because I looked up at him from 11 yards away and he pulled up to shoot me in the face, and I put my hands up and ducked,” said Dyer.

Dyer instructed someone on how to place a tourniquet on his arm, gave a description of the shooter to police, and waited.

NC State quarterback Grayson McCall gives up football after suffering concussion he ‘cannot come back from’ “I remember they were saying, ‘How long for the first ambulance?’ And they’re like, ‘Four to five minutes,’ and they were like, ‘He doesn’t have four to five minutes,’” Dyer said. “So they put me in the back of a pickup truck.”

Dyer was rushed to the hospital for lifesaving surgery.

“I probably shouldn’t be here. They really didn’t think I was coming out,” he said.

Ben Dyer was shot five times during the Oct. 25, 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine.

Dyer beat the odds after being shot five times.

“[The first bullet] came right through and took my whole bicep (and) tricep. Everything was gone,” he said.

Dyer has had to relearn how to live, as the road to recovery has required perseverance and patience.

“Try putting on pants with one hand,” he said.

For Dyer, enough has been taken from him, and he’s had a perspective shift one year later.

“I’m moving forward. If I let Robert Card and what he did that night control me to this day, he’s still winning. The carnage that he wanted to create is still there. I’m not letting him. I’m not letting him hold me anymore,” Dyer said.

“Don’t wait. If it’s something you want, do it,” he added. “If there’s someone you love, you want to be part of your life — like my fiancee — you have to do it because you don’t know if you have tomorrow.

“Just don’t give up. You can get through it, work through it. Things will get better,” Dyer said.

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