Army acknowledges lapses, inaction before mass killing in Maine

The Army disciplined three officers for inaction and administrative failures before military reservist Robert Card killed 18 people last year in Maine, but officials found no evidence connecting the violence to his work in the service, according to the findings of an investigation made public Tuesday.

The Oct. 25 shooting at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston left 13 others injured - the state’s worst act of mass violence. Card, 40, was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Card’s part-time military career has been the subject of intense scrutiny since it was learned in the days after the massacre that a soldier in his unit warned local authorities weeks earlier that Card might “snap and commit a mass shooting.” Card had told family members and friends that he heard voices ridiculing him, and upon the Army’s referral he was briefly hospitalized at a psychiatric facility in the months before the rampage.

The Army investigation examined Card’s medical history and behavior before the killings, seeking to determine whether his military supervisors had missed opportunities to prevent the tragedy. Leaders in his chain of command, who have not been publicly identified, had an obligation to report his threats of violence internally but failed to do so, a report detailing the investigation says. They also did not understand their authorities to gather protected medical information or military regulations that allow them to ask soldiers to store or safeguard privately owned weapons.

The Army report stops short of positing what Card’s motive was or whether investigators believe his military job, which included work on a grenade range, contributed to his mental health decline. A separate study of his brain concluded traumatic injuries “likely played a role” in his behavioral changes, and his family has said that Card was probably exposed to thousands of low-level blasts.

Lt. Gen. Jody J. Daniels, the chief of the Army Reserve, told reporters in a briefing that Card’s exposure to blasts was “relatively minor,” but deferred to health experts to make further determinations about how they may have affected Card’s condition.

Card exhibited warning signs months before the shooting that his Army supervisors failed to act upon, the investigation found. In May 2023, for instance, family members alerted the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office to Card’s mental health condition and his access to guns. The authorities relayed that information to Card’s military commanders, but they did not discuss the issue with him promptly, as they should have, the investigation found.

In July 2023, during a two-week training period for his job in the reserve, Card showed signs of distress and was sent to an Army hospital, the investigation says. Medical personnel there referred him to a civilian psychiatric facility for higher-level care.

Card spent 19 days at the Four Winds Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Katonah, N.Y. A doctor’s notes from the time indicate that Card said he had a “hit list” and talked about killing people, the Army’s investigation says. Nevertheless, the medical team at Four Winds deemed Card a “very low risk” of harming himself or others and released him in August without consulting his military commanders, investigators found.

The hospital’s discharge decision was made under “questionable circumstances,” the Army’s investigation concludes. Daniels told reporters that someone at the facility canceled a court proceeding to hear whether Card should be involuntary committed.

And while the Army had restricted Card’s access to military weapons, they could not force him to surrender his guns “unless there was a medical determination,” Daniels said. That became moot when Four Winds determined he was not a risk and released him, she said.

The hospital, located north of New York in Westchester County, did not return messages seeking comment. The Army report said that the facility did not make anyone available to speak with investigators and that the military had no authority to compel its participation.

Army investigators identified “multiple communication failures,” both between the military and civilian hospitals that treated Card and with his chain of command - lapses that had a direct impact on his “continuity of care,” the Army’s report says.

The Army was slow to circulate Card’s discharge paperwork from Four Winds, the investigation found, leaving his immediate supervisors unaware about the extent of his mental health problems - including his homicidal thoughts and resistance to treatment, the investigation found.

Daniels told reporters that military personnel should have initiated an investigation when Card was hospitalized or shortly thereafter to determine whether his condition was service related.

One challenge unique to members of the military reserve, Daniels said, is that they spend very little time - about 38 days a year - in uniform, and commanders have limited authorities to compel medical care or dictate how reservists should store their personal weapons. But “that doesn’t stop us from calling our soldiers and caring about them and checking in with them,” she said.

There were other moments when Army leaders and law enforcement could have stepped in, the report says. In September, weeks before the shooting, Card assaulted his best friend, a fellow reservist. The friend texted another member of their unit, urging him to change the passcode at a base gate and advising other soldiers to be armed if they encountered Card.

That, too, was referred to the local sheriff’s office, but a person within the unit who spoke with the authorities downplayed the threat that Card posed, the investigation found. The Army’s report does not identify that service member either.

Local authorities visited Card’s home days later, and even though he was home, they did not attempt a meaningful welfare check, the report says. The sheriff’s office also did not try to enforce a Maine state law that allows a judge to temporarily remove guns from someone in a mental health crisis.

If law enforcement had been more proactive, “then the mass shooting and suicide may have been avoided,” the report concluded.

The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An independent review requested by the sheriff’s office found that the deputies “acted reasonably” and that, despite growing concerns from fellow soldiers and family, they lacked authority to force their way into Card’s home or confiscate his guns during that visit.