LEWISTON, Maine — Arthur Strout fell in love with pool. He built his friend groups around the sport, according to his dad, also named Arthur. It was when he was young, his dad said, he could see a strong person.
"When Arthur first came to live with me, his mom said, 'I can't handle him, he likes to fight,' but all I saw was a scrawny kid," Arthur Bernard said.
Bernard told a story about when his son, who went by Artie, was two.
"He had managed to unbuckle the straps and dragged my guitar on his lap and left hand under the neck like this and he's trying to sing ... and that was the day I learned the song 'Simple Man,'" Bernard said. "I have a lot of memories."
Artie soon became a father, with a total of five children between him and his wife.
With his adulthood, he brought his love of pool. It's what brought him to Schemengees Bar & Grille.
"I know we were about 20 feet from the door because when you walk in there are two tables," Bernard said. "I think two tables were the only ones playing pool."
Bernard ended up leaving early. Artie stayed behind.
Just minutes after Bernard left he was driving up Main Street and saw about a dozen cop cars drive by. His ex-wife, Julie, called him.
"Julie called me and said there's a shooting at Schemengees,'" Bernard said. "You want to have hope but you're prepared for the worst."
Arthur Fred Strout was shot and killed in Maine's deadliest mass shooting and one of the deadliest in the country on Oct. 25. Eighteen people were killed that night and 13 were injured.
According to attorneys representing the families, around 100 people were impacted by the shootings that took place at both Schemengees and Just-In-Time Recreation.
Bernard said he and his family waited at Central Maine Medical Center until 5:30 in the morning.
"He wasn't on that list and I knew he wasn't," Bernard said. "My thought was that he was all alone, that none of his family was with him."
Bernard said at Artie's funeral, the people working at the funeral home told him Artie died quickly.
"They told me he must have gone quickly because he was shot so many times," Bernard said.
Bernard said the past few weeks have been a rollercoaster, with waves of emotion overcoming the family like a tsunami.
"I think sometimes I want to hear his voice again ... I can't even find pictures of me and him together," Bernard said.
He said looking after Strout's wife and children is a long road ahead, and that the grief for each member of the family is different.
In the meantime, Bernard said he is channeling his focus into a mission to make sure Strout and the killings of the other Mainers who lost their lives do not go without action.
"Now it is time to decide what you're going to do with your lives. I don't think I'll ever stop trying to do something with these gun laws," Bernard said.
Bernard wants to make sure a mass shooting at this scale does not happen again. He is traveling to Washington D.C. the first week of December to meet with others who lost family to mass shootings around the country, and plans to meet with Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King.
Offices for both senators confirmed with a reporter from NEWS CENTER Maine Friday the meeting will be happening on Dec. 7.
"I've seen a million things change in 60 years, I'm 62, and I've seen a million things change but this thing is one of those things that has got to change," Bernard said.
Bernard added that he wants limits on ammunition for assault rifles and wants to see automatic rifles off the streets.
"I don't know what I'm going to do ... but this is not something that I can just sit back and say it just happened and go on and live my life and just live my life without trying to do something, this is something I can do," Bernard said.
Amid going to the nation's capitol to speak to leaders about the reform he wants to see, Bernard said he will try to get to know his grandkids and give them the help they need in the wake of losing their father.
"It's tough watching them go through what they're going through," Bernard said. "Their mother asked her [daughter] what she wanted for Christmas and his daughter, Brianna, said, 'Mom, you can't get me what I want for Christmas.'"
All the while, coping with the loss of his own son, knowing this journey will last for the rest of his life.
"We're going to carry that torch."
Bernard said that the morning after the shooting when he knew his son had died he needed to get gasoline for his car after driving around all night.
He approached a BJ's Gas and realized the town and area were shut down due to the police search for the active shooter.
"I sat there and screamed for three hours," Bernard said. "I then see someone pumping gas in the Auburn parking lot."
He headed over to Walmart where he saw the gas pumps working. It was then some younger man approached Bernard and started fueling up as well.
"I said, 'Yeah, I lost my son last night,'" Bernard said.
Bernard told the young man his son was Arthur Strout.
"He starts walking toward me and said, 'You don't know me but I sure as hell know you,' he said, 'I'm going to give you a hug,'" Bernard said.
Bernard, choked up, said this was an example of the friendships and impact his son had.
"As I'm hugging this guy he says ... 'Arthur was my friend and I loved him and he talked about you all the time,"' Bernard said.
"He was loved by a lot of people, so no, I'll never let this go and stop until I figure out who is going to be the person that can make changes, because someone has to."