LEWISTON, Maine — Suspected mass shooter Robert Card is a deer hunter “capable of hiding for a long time if he doesn’t want to be caught,” according to his family’s longtime neighbor.

Card, 40, is the subject of a massive manhunt over a Wednesday night shooting spree that left 18 people dead and 13 others wounded at multiple sites.

Rick Goddard, 44, lives less than a mile down the road from Card’s parents in Bowdoin, where the suspect grew up, and has known the family for decades.

“It’s his stomping ground. I mean, he grew up here. He knows the area really well. He’s capable of hiding for a long time if he doesn’t want to be caught. There’s a lot of places you can be in the woods and never be seen,” Goddard told The Post.

“It’s really dense, thick woods. If you know the area, there’s a lot of places you can hide … you could never see something like that from an airplane or helicopter.

“The trees are so close together, you can barely walk through them. It’s so thick, you can barely see 10 feet into the woods. If I was going to hide, that’s what I would do. I would hide in some place like that.”

Goddard said he also went to school with Card, who was a few grades behind him at Mt. Ararat High.

He described the Cards as quiet farmers who had been in the area, a small community about 16 miles from Lewiston, for several generations. 

“They’re really quiet people,” he said.

“His whole family owns hundreds of acres around my house. They’re a farming family. They stay to themselves but they’re good, hardworking people.”

Goddard said he saw SWAT teams swarm Card’s parents’ house around 7:30 a.m. on Thursday.

“I didn’t believe it,” he said when he saw his neighbor’s name in the news.

“I didn’t think it could be anything possible of the truth. It doesn’t make any sense.”

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Card is a skilled outdoorsman and trained US Army Reserve marksman who was among the top shooters in his unit, according to reports. He enlisted in the Army in 2002 and is a petroleum supply specialist.

According to Goddard, the last time he saw the suspect was about two weeks ago “when he and his father were haying the field across the street” — but he hadn’t spoken to Card for a couple of years.

He instead recalled a conversation he had with Card’s brother — who lives in another house on the same street as his parents and had also been in the military — last fall.

“He hunts,” Goddard said of the suspect. 

“I talked to his brother last year and he was looking for a deer that he shot… in the fields by his father’s house. 

“I saw a flashlight in the back of my house so I went down to see who was there. He was just telling me he was trying to help his brother find a deer.”

He said the brother told him that Card was using a new $2,000 thermal scope at the time.

“The person they’re looking for bought the scope,” Goddard said.

Police in Maine said Card walked into the Just-In-Time Recreation Bowl in Lewiston shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday and allegedly opened fire with an assault rifle, killing seven people.

Minutes later, he allegedly struck at Schemengees Bar & Grille about two miles away, killing seven more inside the establishment and one outside.

Three others who were wounded at the two sites were later pronounced dead at area hospitals, while an additional 13 people were injured by gunfire — including a 10-year-old girl.

Federal, state, county and local authorities are desperately trying to locate Card.

“We believe this is someone who should not be approached,” Maine State Police Col. William Ross said at a press briefing Wednesday.