GREENSBORO, N.C. — Kylie Ferland lives in Greensboro and woke up on Wednesday night to headlines of a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine.
An incident that, for her, happened too close to home, in a place she knew all too well.
"I could tell he was at the bowling alley, there's bowling pins right there on that door and then they should be outside and it still has spare time on the top and I'm like I know right where that is," said Ferland.
Ferland grew up in Lewiston, Maine.
She says she knows exactly where the incidents happened.
In fact her family has gone to the bowling alley countless times during the 23 years she lived in Maine.
"It's a great place to just hang out and have fun with some friends but Schemengees has been around a little longer, I'm not really sure exactly when they opened but it's a bar and grill where you can play darts, corn hole, so there's always a lot of people a lot of things going on there," said Ferland.
On Wednesday evening, a gunman now identified as Robert Card, opened fire inside Sparetime Recreation Bowling Alley and Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant in Lewiston, ME.
18 people were killed and more than a dozen people were hurt.
Ferland still has friends and family in the area including her brother who lives in South Paris, Maine, about 30 minutes west from Lewiston.
"It was devastating. I was trying to hold it in and I was trying to contact friends, I was trying to contact family. The crisis response on Facebook where you can check into an event that may have happened and work yourself safe, I was watching that like a hawk for friends and family to post," said Ferland.
Luckily all of her friends and family were safe.
Ferland joins a growing list of people who can no longer say something this tragic wouldn't happen in their hometown.
"You hear about Sandy Hook, you hear about Columbine, you hear about the churches that have been shot up and Aurora, at the movie theater and you're like 'that's never going to happen' and those people said the same thing. My thoughts are if it can happen there, it could happen anywhere," said Ferland.
Organizations such as the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team are sending volunteers to Lewiston to pray for and support those in the community.
Ferland is confident that her hometown will come together to move past this unthinkable tragedy.
"Lewiston is going to be a strong community. We've power through a lot of minor things, we're going to power through this. We are going to come together, we are Lewiston strong, and we always have been, and always will be," said Ferland.