An independent commission declared on Tuesday, nearly ten months after an Army reserve went on a fatal rampage in Lewiston, Maine, that the U.S. military and local law enforcement had “several opportunities” that, if taken, “may have altered the sad trajectory of these occurrences.”
Although the final report by the independent committee concluded that gunman Robert Card was only accountable for his own actions, other mistakes were also considered, such as:
- According to state law, a Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office sergeant who was checking on Card’s well-being a few weeks prior to the shooting had “sufficient probable cause” to place him in protective custody.
- Card’s Army Reserve unit leaders “neglected to take the appropriate action to lessen the threat he posed to the public,” including disobeying “strong recommendations” from his mental health providers to continue monitoring him and make sure that any weapons in his home were taken out. They also “neglected to share” all of the information they were aware of about Card’s prior threats with the local sheriff’s office.
- In addition to failing to appropriately check in with Card after he was placed in a psychiatric unit at an Army training facility in West Point, New York, last summer, where he got into a physical altercation with another reservist, the gunman’s company commander had the authority to store service members’ personal firearms.
- Card was first evaluated at Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point last summer. Medical workers there neglected to submit a so-called SAFE Act notice, which notifies authorities when a patient poses a risk to themselves or others.
A month after the massacre at a bar and bowling alley on October 25 that left eighteen people dead, Maine Governor Janet Mills established the panel.
During more than a dozen hearings, the commission—which was composed of former state judicial and legal authorities as well as medical experts—gathered testimony from local law enforcement, military personnel, survivors of the shooting, families of those who were slain, and the gunman’s family. According to the group, its job was to “discover the truth” so that political officials, military chiefs, and law enforcement could lessen the likelihood that a similar catastrophe would happen again.
Commission Chairman Daniel Wathen stated at a press conference on Tuesday that “In September, the Sheriff’s Office could have taken a more proactive stance if Card’s Army Reserve unit members had provided a comprehensive and accurate statement of the facts.”
Wathen stated that although Army bureaucracy slowed down the commission’s investigative process, the military continued to cooperate. He continued by saying that since they were not on the panel, he expects Maine State Police to carry out their own after-action study with policing expertise. A request for comment was not immediately answered by state police.
Following a two-day manhunt, the 40-year-old gunman was discovered dead by suicide.
A Sagadahoc County sheriff’s sergeant, who was notified by Card’s family about his declining mental state and carried out a welfare check around five weeks before to the shooting, came under fire in an interim report issued by the panel in March. According to the panel, the sergeant had good reason to start using Maine’s “yellow flag” law, which gives police the authority to seize a person’s handgun if they pose a threat to themselves or others.
However, the sergeant claimed that because Card was refusing to answer his door, law enforcement was at the time hampered.
The committee observed that the “yellow flag” law in the state “may sometimes be cumbersome.” A bill to strengthen the laws was approved by Mills in April, and it gave police the authority to get protective custody orders from judges for anyone who might pose a threat and own firearms.
Following the shooting, the military came under increased scrutiny.
Card taught hand grenade training for many years and served as an Army reservist for twenty years. In May, family members informed the inquiry that, despite their concerns regarding his mental health and gun access, they had attempted to contact the Army the previous year but received no response.
After Card was involved in a shoving incident with another reservist in July 2023, which resulted in his being hospitalized in a psychiatric unit at a civilian hospital for two weeks, an internal military report released in July that looked into the Army’s response detailed how certain protocols were not followed by Card’s unit. According to the military’s investigation, at the time, he had made a “hit list” and was exhibiting psychosis and suicidal thoughts.
Card was not allowed to have access to weapons while on duty by the Army.
However, his unit failed to carry out the necessary “line of duty investigation,” which would have also recorded the state of his mental health. The report also mentioned that no information on Card’s diagnosis, prognosis, or directives for discharge was provided to his chain of command. The audit also discovered communication breakdowns between the Army and the civilian hospital, which can be fixed going forward.
Finally, a military investigator came to the conclusion that “It is unlikely that even perfect execution by Army soldiers in every place that was identified could have stopped the sad occurrences.” The investigator then placed the blame elsewhere, saying that the sheriff’s office in the area could have prevented the mass shooting and suicide if it had “fully executed their health and welfare check” on the gunman.
Families of the victims have claimed that different agency investigations have produced contradictory results regarding who should be held responsible. They continue to demand that the Inspector General of the Department of Defense conduct a more thorough inquiry.
Lawyer Ben Gideon hinted at the impending lawsuits in the upcoming months while restating the commission’s 215-page report’s “numerous opportunities” for steps that may have been taken.
“This process needs to move forward with true accountability,” Gideon stated.
“The fact that he seems to have experienced severe paranoid delusions for such a long time is one of the most remarkable aspects of this case,” Gideon said of the assailant, “however after that, he was released back into society without receiving any medical attention.”
Card’s family has expressed concern that the “severe” traumatic brain injury that experts discovered evidence of earlier this year was related to his years of exposure to low-level blasts while serving as a hand grenade instructor in the military.
In its findings, the military refuted any connection between his military service and any brain damage. Nevertheless, the military declared that it will create better blast protection gear and start “baseline cognitive assessments” for its trainees this summer.
Regarding a conclusive reason for the massacre, Card’s family was unable to provide the panel with one in May.
The gunman’s ex-wife, Cara Lamb, who gave birth to a kid with him, stated, “For the rest of our lives, we could ask a million whys and never come up with a satisfactory response.”