LEWISTON, Maine — Survivors and family members of victims of the 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston said Wednesday they are suing the Army, Department of Defense and a military hospital for allegedly failing to heed warning signs about Robert Card II before he carried out the deadliest rampage in Maine history.
The litigation had been expected after four law firms representing 100 clients served notices to the federal government last fall that gave the defendants several months to act on their claims related to the Oct. 25, 2023, mass shooting that left 18 dead and 13 injured at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar.
The lawsuit calls the Maine attack “one of the most preventable mass tragedies in American history” and mentions 12 other shootings by current or former military personnel. The 119-page complaint delves into regulations and military orders the plaintiffs argue the Army should have used with Card while summarizing previously reported details of the lead-up to the shooting.
Attorneys and family members of victims said the federal government had not responded to the notices, and they are using a Wednesday afternoon news conference at the Franco-American Heritage Center in Lewiston to explain the lawsuit that seeks an unspecified amount of monetary damages.
Police found Card dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in nearby Lisbon two days after the shooting. The law firms — Maine-based Berman & Simmons and Gideon Asen along with Texas-based National Trial Law and Connecticut-based Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder PC — said the Army first became aware in 2022 of a severe decline in Card’s mental health.
Military hospital personnel who treated Card months before the shooting determined his paranoia, homicidal ideations and comments about a “hit list” posed a serious risk, but the lawsuit notes they allowed him to return to Maine in August 2023.
Card’s friend and fellow reservist warned superiors in September 2023 that he would commit a mass shooting. The firms representing survivors and victims’ families said Card’s military leaders downplayed the matter, did not follow hospital staff recommendations to take away his personal weapons and failed to notify local law enforcement of that guidance. In the shooting, Card used a semi-automatic rifle he had legally purchased months earlier.
“Despite these warnings and repeated opportunities, the Army failed to act,” the lawsuit says.
A commission formed by Gov. Janet Mills faulted the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office for not using Maine’s “yellow flag” law to take Card into custody when conducting welfare checks at his Bowdoin home in September 2023. The panel also blamed Army Reserve leaders for communication lapses and not following recommendations from Four Winds Hospital in Katonah, New York, to monitor him and secure his weapons.
Sheriff’s deputies and Army superiors instead relied on Card’s family to take away his guns. The Army Reserve and Army inspector general also released separate reviews into the shooting that mentioned discipline for three unidentified officers and identified errors by hospital staff. Those probes also told the federal Defense Health Agency to consider whether to terminate the contract of a nursing-related contractor at Keller Army Community Hospital.
But the federal government cited confidentiality rules in not sharing further findings from that review and whether Card should have been considered to be in the line of duty, something that would have expanded intervention options. The lawsuit says the Army found Card was released from Four Winds under “questionable circumstances.”
After walking inside Just-In-Time Recreation a few minutes before 7 p.m. on the night of the shooting, Card took 48 seconds to kill eight people and injure three. He then drove about four miles to Schemengees Bar and Grille and took 78 seconds to kill 10 more people and injure 10. At least 20 others suffered injuries while escaping. Four victims were deaf, and the lawsuit says it was the deadliest mass shooting of deaf people in U.S. history.
Card, who enlisted in 2002 and never served in combat, had trained cadets for years as a grenade instructor, and experts who analyzed his brain found “significant evidence” of trauma. The Pentagon has since issued new guidelines to protect soldiers from shockwaves that can cause brain damage and plans for new recruits to undergo cognitive tests.
