Commission Finds U.S. Army Reserves, Maine Police Missed Opportunities to Avert 2023 Mass Shooting
Maine police and the U.S. Army Reserve missed key opportunities to intervene in a mass shooter’s psychiatric crisis and take steps to seize his weapons before he committed the worst mass shooting in Maine history, according to a new report from a special independent commission.
Forty-year-old Army Reservist, Robert Card II, killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, on 25 October 2023 at a bowling alley and nearby restaurant. The assault initiated an extensive manhunt for the gunman that lasted two days. The shooter was ultimately found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Shortly after the shooting, Maine Governor Janet Mills created an independent commission to investigate why the shooter wasn’t detected earlier as a potential threat, identifying lessons that could shape future policy.
The commission released its findings in a public report on Tuesday; it did not offer policy recommendations of its own.
“Card is solely responsible for his own conduct. He caused the deaths and injuries inflicted that night,” the report stated. “Although he might still have committed a mass shooting even if someone had managed to remove Card's firearms before October 25, 2023, there were several opportunities that, if taken, might have changed the course of events.”
Maine law enforcement officers had the authority and sufficient cause under the state’s yellow flag law to seize the Card’s firearms and put him in protective custody weeks before the shooting, but they did not pursue that option, the commission found. In addition, Card’s superior officers in the Reserves could have taken additional action to ensure he was taking his psychiatric medication or complying with required follow-up care after he was hospitalized by the Army during a July 2023 training period, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The report contained details of the shooter’s time at a private psychiatric hospital in New York, where he acknowledged having a “hit list.” Although officials planned to ask a judge to extend Card’s hospitalization, the hearing never happened, and he was discharged after 19 days.
“Army officials conducted their own investigation after the shootings that Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, then the chief of the Army Reserve, said found ‘a series of failures by unit leadership,’” the AP explained. “Three Army Reserve leaders were disciplined for dereliction of duty, according to the report. The Army said in a statement Tuesday that it’s ‘committed to reviewing the findings and implementing sound changes to prevent tragedies like this from recurring.’”
The commission report found that Card’s Army Reserve commanders ignored mental health clinicians who urged them to closely monitor whether he was continuing treatment and to ensure his weapons were taken away. Unit leaders were aware of Card’s “auditory hallucinations, increasingly aggressive behavior, collection of guns, and ominous comments about his intentions,” the report explained.
Unit leaders also neglected to share all relevant information about the shooter’s threatening behavior with Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office officials, who might have acted more assertively in confiscating his firearms if they were better informed. The Army also discounted warnings from Card’s friends that he might “snap” and commit a mass shooting, the commission found.
In addition to the findings regarding the shooter, the commission also studied the law enforcement response to the shooting itself, including the “utter chaos” of the first few hours after the incident. Maine State Police will likely conduct its own full after-action review.
Maine’s legislature passed new gun laws for the state after the shooting, including a three-day waiting period for gun purchases. The new laws also streamline the state’s yellow flag procedures for taking people into protective custody or removing weapons when individuals show signs of threatening or dangerous behavior.
