Owners of bowling alley in mass shooting vow to reopen it as 'a safe place again'
At first, Justin Jaray could not fathom reentering his beloved bowling alley, much less reopening it after a gunman's rampage in October left several dead in what would become one of two scenes of carnage in Maine's second-largest city.
LEWISTON, Maine — At first, Justin Juray couldn’t fathom re-entering his beloved bowling alley, much less reopening it after a gunman’s rampage there in October killed several people.
“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.
But as the couple contemplated the catastrophe in the weeks that followed Maine’s deadliest mass shooting at the bowling alley and a nearby bar, in which 18 people died, 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 at 10 a.m. May 3.
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