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There has been an unfortunate amount of defensiveness and blame shifting, especially from Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Army Reserve officials, about the many failures leading up to Robert Card II killing 18 people and injuring 13 others in Lewiston in October. Hopefully all officials involved were listening intently to recent testimony from Card’s family.
James Herling, Card’s brother-in-law, delivered a critical if heartbreaking message when testifying last week before the independent commission investigating the Lewiston shooting.
“We can point fingers at who’s at fault, who has failed to make the ultimate contact, but in all reality, we all could have done better, from the sheriff’s office to the Army to the family,” Herling said Thursday.
It is past time for the officials involved to adopt this same reflective and honest perspective. No, not as a collective “our bad” that absolves officials from the multitude of missed warning signs and failures, but as a recognition that continued action is needed at multiple levels to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again.
The family repeatedly contacted officials at multiple agencies with their concerns about Card. They sought help for him. They tried repeatedly to share concerns that he might hurt those around him. Yet, we see more accountability in Herling’s comment than we have from some officials themselves. Various systems and officials failed this family, just as the systems and officials failed the families of victims and survivors.
For example, the Army Reserve failed to share more information about Card’s behavior and mental state with local authorities. That can’t happen again. So at the federal level, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ expected legislation to improve how the military shares information about potential threats from servicemembers is absolutely critical. The Army Reserve and the Pentagon in general have a failure to account for here.
The same can be said about the Sagadahoc Sheriff’s Office. An interim report from the commission investing the Lewiston shooting has already found that the sheriff’s office “had sufficient probable cause to take Robert Card Jr. into protective custody under Maine’s Yellow Flag law and to remove his firearms and that the [Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office] had probable cause to believe that Mr. Card posed a likelihood of serious harm.”
That report also outlined how Maine’s yellow flag law can be cumbersome, which speaks to the importance of changes made by the Legislature and Gov. Janet Mills to improve that process. Strengthening that yellow flag law, while appropriate, was also insufficient.
The Card family was asked to shoulder an immense responsibility to remove guns from Robert Card’s possession, without the legal tools necessary to do so. If law enforcement agencies are going to fail to engage the yellow flag law, that highlights the need for a red flag law that empowers families to initiate the process of temporarily removing weapons from someone who they believe is a danger to themselves or others. The Legislature ran out of time on a red flag bill this session, but that conversation must continue, and lead to action.
Some important steps have been taken to address the collective failures that led up to the Lewiston shooting, but more is needed. Officials need to refrain from pointing fingers, and focus on doing better.
