Co-owner of Lewiston bar where mass murder occurred dies at age 57

LEWISTON (BDN) – A member of the couple behind Schemengee's Bar and Grille, a popular Lewiston pool hall that closed after being the target of Maine's deadliest mass murder on record, died Tuesday.

David Lebel died unexpectedly Tuesday, according to his wife, Kathy, who opened Schemengees with her husband in 1999 and later moved the business from the former RI Mitchell building downtown to 551 Lincoln St. on the Androscoggin River. Lebel, who also leaves behind a son and was previously diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, was 57.

“He embraced life and people with an open heart,” Kathy Lebel wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday evening that did not mention the cause of death. “He made friends easily; once you met Dave, you couldn't help but feel the warmth of his kind soul.”

Kathy Lebel previously said she came up with the idea of ​​buying Schemengees to satisfy her love of billiards one night in bed after her husband mentioned that one of their former favorite places was for sale.

“He looks at me and says, 'We're not buying that,'” Kathy Lebel told the Associated Press earlier this year. “I say, 'Are you kidding me? I'm going to buy it. I don't know what it costs, but I want that pool hall.'”

The couple bought Schemengees and kept the name, a nickname of the previous owner that amused Kathy Lebel when others had difficulty pronouncing or spelling it.

David Lebel died on the same day that the state commission investigating the Lewiston mass murder released its final report on police and military failures leading up to the October 25, 2023, shooting at Schemenees and Just-In-Time Recreation that left 18 people dead and 13 injured.

Robert Card II, a 40-year-old reservist from Bowdoin whose family and fellow soldiers had warned police and military superiors for months about his declining mental health and access to weapons, carried out the attack that night at the busy bowling alley and continued on to Schemengees, where dozens of people were playing cornhole. The gunman had also been gambling at the bar.

After a two-day manhunt, Card was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in nearby Lisbon. Schemengees has been closed since the shooting, while Just-In-Time Recreation reopened in May. Kathy Lebel also owns the Station Grill restaurant in Lewiston.

Arthur Barnard was playing pool with his 42-year-old son, Arthur “Artie” Strout, in Schemengees that Wednesday night in October and left the bar minutes before the shooting that killed his son and nine others. He remembers going to the hospital after the rampage and sitting next to David Lebel to keep him company.

“He was a great guy,” Barnard said, adding that he treated his coworkers and everyone else “like family.”

The Lebels “have spent 37 wonderful years together, raising our son and creating a life full of love,” Kathy wrote Tuesday evening.

“Dave wholeheartedly supported every crazy idea I had,” Kathy Lebel wrote Tuesday night. “When I was all in, he was too. I was incredibly lucky that he chose me as his wife.”