A new Defense Department report tied to the October 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston found that the Army and Navy frequently failed to follow their own policies when personnel made violent threats.
The report, issued this week by the inspector general’s office at the Defense Department, also recommended several policy changes to ensure that military commanders report when a service member threatens civilians and non-governmental employees.
The inspector general’s office, which was created to be the independent watchdog arm of the Defense Department, reviewed more than 200 cases of violent threats that were investigated by the Army, Navy and Air Force in 2023. The investigation found that in more than 40% of those cases, military law enforcement officers or leaders at those bases or facilities failed to properly report the violent threats to the criminal investigation divisions.
In some cases, those threats were relayed to the investigative divisions — such as the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS — but were not documented. But the report suggested that some incidents were simply never reported to the higher offices. The office did not find any noncompliance issues with the Air Force cases it reviewed.
“When a service member makes a violent threat, it is important to ensure the chain of command, installation law enforcement and the Service MCIOs (Military Criminal Investigative Organization) are properly notified of the potential danger,” reads the report. “Failure to consistently report violent threats to MCIOs could increase the risk of additional violent incidents by service members, such as what occurred with SFC Card on October 25, 2023.”
That was a reference to Sgt. 1st Class Robert Card, the Army Reservist from Bowdoin who killed 18 people and injured more than a dozen others at two businesses in Lewiston on Oct. 23, 2023. Card, who was a 20-year veteran of the reserves, had been exhibiting increasing paranoia and aggressive behavior for months before the shootings.
Members of Card’s family had expressed concerns about his mental state and his access to guns with local police as well as leaders of his Saco-based Reserve unit. And roughly three months before the shooting, Card spent weeks at a psychiatric hospital in New York after his Reserve unit leaders ordered him to undergo an evaluation because of his erratic and aggressive behavior. His unit helped train cadets at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point in weaponry, and Card often served as an instructor in the grenade range.
But Card was allowed to return to civilian life in Maine after his release and never followed directives to receive follow-up care. The month before the shooting, a close friend and fellow reservist told his unit leaders that he was concerned Card might attack the Saco facility or snap and commit a mass shooting. Card was never taken into custody by local police or had his firearms confiscated under Maine’s “yellow flag” law.
A subsequent investigation by an independent commission in Maine faulted members of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office for not working more aggressively to contact Card and invoking the law. But the commission also faulted Army Reserve leaders for not ensuring Card’s firearms were taken away or making sure he was continuing treatment back in and taking his medications back in Maine.
An internal Army report also faulted Card’s Reserve unit leader for, among other things: failing to file multiple critical incident reports to higher-ups about Card’s concerning behavior, failing to ensure his family had secured his private weapons after his hospitalization and failing to begin an investigation as to his fitness for service.
The Defense Department inspector general’s report also noted that the Army, Navy and Air Force do not explicitly require commanders to report when a service member makes violent threats against civilians or non-governmental employees, although many do.
Leaders of the military branches agreed to make that change and others in response to the findings, according to the inspector general. Additionally, the criminal investigative divisions for each branch agreed to further investigate those incidents of violent threats that were not passed along to their offices and to “conduct any additional investigative actions they deem appropriate.”
The full report is available here.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
