Army and police missed chances to intervene before Maine mass shootings, final report says

Both the Army Reserves and local police missed out on opportunities to intervene in a gunman’s psychiatric crisis and seize weapons from the spiraling reservist responsible for the deadliest shootings in Maine history, according to the final report released Tuesday by a special commission created to investigate the attacks, which killed 18 people.

The independent commission, which held more than a dozen public meetings, heard from scores of witnesses and reviewed thousands of pages of evidence, cited shortcomings by police for failing to take the gunman’s weapons and by the Army Reserves for failing to provide proper care for the 40-year-old gunman, Robert Card.

The commission, created by Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, announced its conclusions at Lewiston City Hall, less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the two sites where the shootings took place Oct. 25, 2023.

The 215-page report reiterated the panel’s conclusion from an interim finding in March that law enforcement had authority under the state’s yellow flag law to seize the shooter’s guns and put him in protective custody weeks before the shootings. But it also said the Army Reserves also should have done more, as well, to ensure care and deal with the weapons.

Daniel Wathen, chair of the commission, started his remarks by acknowledging the victims. “None of us can begin to imagine the pain you people have experienced on that terrible day,” he said.

He said it’s impossible know if the tragedy would have happened if police and the Army had done a better job. He also said police did their best to respond to the tragedy but noted that there was “utter chaos” when hundreds of police officers poured into the region.

The commission began its work a month after the mass shooting by Card, an Army reservist who killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston and then took his own life. Over nine months, there has been emotional testimony from family members and survivors of the shooting, law enforcement officials and U.S. Army Reserves personnel, and others.

The commission’s public hearings revealed the swift response by police to the shootings, but also the ensuing chaos during the intensive search for the gunman. Card’s sister testified at a hearing, her hand resting on his military helmet as she spoke. Kathleen Walker, whose husband, Jason, was killed while rushing at Card to try to stop him, said: “The system failed, and we can’t allow this to happen again.”

Family members and fellow reservists said Card had exhibited delusional and paranoid behavior months before the shootings. He was hospitalized by the Army during training in July 2023, but a commanding officer acknowledged to the commission that he didn’t check on Card’s compliance on follow-up care.

The starkest warning came in September when a fellow reservist texted an Army supervisor, saying, “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.” Card was found dead by his own hand after the search that followed the shootings.

Army officials conducted their own investigation after the shootings that Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, then the chief of the Army Reserves, said found “a series of failures by unit leadership.” Three Army Reserve leaders were disciplined for dereliction of duty, according to the report, which noted communication failures within the chain of command and between military and civilian hospitals.

Maine’s legislature passed new guns laws for the state, which has a tradition of hunting and firearms ownership, after the shootings. A three-day waiting period for gun purchases went into effect this month.

Wathen, the commission's chair, is a former chief justice of Maine’s highest court. The seven-member commission also included two former federal prosecutors, two additional former judges, the state’s former chief forensic psychologist, and a private psychiatrist who’s an executive at a psychiatric hospital.

Sharp reported from Portland, Maine.

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OCTOBER 27, 2023:

Authorities say a man suspected of fatally shooting 18 people and wounding 13 in Maine has been found dead.

Robert Card, who was wanted in connection with the shootings at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston, is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a law enforcement official tells The Associated Press.

The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity.

Eighteen people were killed in shootings at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night, sparking a massive search for the suspect, who was found dead Friday.

Card, 40, of Bowdoin, Maine, was a U.S. Army reservist who underwent a mental health evaluation in mid-July after he began acting erratically during training, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.

Card had been sought since the Wednesday night shootings, with warrants issued against him.

A bulletin sent to police across the country shortly after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer after “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” a military base.

Investigators found a note at a home associated with Card on Thursday that was addressed to his son, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

The officials described it as a suicide note but said it didn’t provide any specific motive for the shooting.

Card’s cellphone had also been recovered in the home, making a search more complicated because authorities routinely use phones to track suspects, the officials said.

A gun was found in the white Subaru that Card abandoned, the officials said. Federal agents were testing the gun to determine if it was used in the shooting and conducting a trace to determine when and where the gun was obtained, the officials said.