LEWISTON, Maine — Police and military failures contributed to Maine’s deadliest-ever mass shooting in which an Army reservist killed 18 people and injured 13 others at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston last year, according to a state panel’s final report.
The 215-page report from a commission appointed by Gov. Janet Mills is the fullest account yet of the events leading up to the shooting perpetrated by 40-year-old Robert Card II of Bowdoin, whose family and peers had warned police and military superiors of his declining mental health, threats to “shoot up” businesses and access to guns in the months before the shooting on Oct. 25, 2023.
While the final report represents an end to the commission’s work and closes a key chapter in the Lewiston shooting response, the case is hardly closed. Attorneys for people affected by the massacre are expected to file lawsuits while seeking more information from the military.
The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office had sufficient probable cause to use Maine’s yellow flag law, taking Card into custody and taking his guns, the report said. It also found that Army Reserve members should have shared more information about Card’s mental health with local law enforcement, which may have influenced police to be more assertive.
At the same time, the panel chaired by retired Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Dan Wathen emphasized that Card could have committed the shooting irrespective of what authorities did in the weeks ahead of the shooting.
“Card is solely responsible for his own conduct,” the report said.
The findings build on those in the commission’s preliminary report in March. A month before the shooting, Sagadahoc County sheriff’s deputies conducting a welfare check at Card’s residence left after he did not answer the door. The report released Monday said Sgt. Aaron Skolfield of the sheriff’s office downplayed the threat that Card caused.
Sheriff Joel Merry has pointed to a report commissioned by his office finding that Skolfield and others acted reasonably at that time and thought Card’s threat was contained. Skolfield is running as a Republican against Merry, a Democrat, in the November election.
A 48-hour manhunt for Card ended when police found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a trailer by the Lisbon recycling center where he previously worked. Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey then formed the seven-member commission made up of current and former judges, lawyers, prosecutors and medical experts.
The commission met more than a dozen times between November and July, hearing from local and state police, families of victims, survivors, Army officials, Card’s family and others.
At a news conference at Lewiston City Hall on Tuesday, Wathen said the Maine State Police never had received so many records and information before, which led to the report taking nine months to complete. He also said the commission was “slow walked” by several agencies that were asked for information, including the Army Reserve.
Colby Card, a then-senior in high school and Card’s son, first raised concerns in May 2023 about his father’s mental state and guns he had at his house, in his vehicle and at various family members’ homes.
Colby Card and his mother, Cara Lamb, reported their concerns to the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office. Deputy Chad Carleton took their report and then reached out to Card’s supervisor in the Army Reserve, 1st Sgt. Kelvin Mote. Mote is also a police officer in Ellsworth.
Mote said fellow reservists would sit down with Card. There is no evidence any reservists sat down or attempted to meet with Card, the report said.
This past July, the Army Reserve and the Army’s inspector general released the results of separate investigations into the shooting and Card. The military review mentioned three unidentified Army Reserve officers were disciplined for what the Army Reserve chief called a “series of failures.”
The Army Reserve investigation also identified errors by local law enforcement and medical professionals in New York, where Card was hospitalized last July after fellow reservists became concerned about his erratic behavior and repeated claims of people calling him a pedophile.
Card, who enlisted in 2002 and was never in combat, had trained cadets at West Point and worked over the years as a grenade instructor. Boston University experts who analyzed Card’s brain found “significant evidence of trauma.” The Army report said Card fell from his home’s roof in 2008 and broke his neck, but the Army Reserve chief, Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, insisted on no ties between his brain injury and military service.
Still, the Pentagon has since announced new guidelines meant to protect soldiers from shockwaves that can cause brain damage, and starting later this year, all new recruits will undergo testing to get a baseline of their cognitive function.
Several law firms are representing roughly 90 clients affected by the Lewiston shooting, and they have indicated legal action could come in the future. In the meantime, attorneys Travis Brennan and Ben Gideon said they would like the Pentagon’s inspector general to review “conflicting conclusions” between the different military investigations.
Wathen repeatedly noted to reporters that the commission was not charged with recommending legislation or speaking to whether authorities should have used New York’s red flag law on Card.
“We found the facts, and from the facts, people will draw their own conclusions,” Wathen said.
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.
