Army and police missed opportunities to prevent Maine's deadliest shooting

A final report on the mass murder in Lewiston, Maine, shows how local police and the Army Reserve failed to prevent the deadliest mass murder in the state's history.

On Tuesday, an independent commission released its final report on the deadliest mass murder in Maine history, when 40-year-old Robert Card shot and killed 18 people at a bowling alley in 2023.

The independent commission, appointed by Maine's Democratic governor, Janet Mills, held dozens of meetings, heard numerous witnesses' testimony and reviewed numerous pieces of evidence. The commission pointed to police failures to confiscate the shooter's weapons and criticized the Army Reserve for failing to provide Card with adequate mental health care.

The 215-page report reiterated the panel's March conclusion that law enforcement had the authority under the state's Yellow Flag law to confiscate the shooter's firearms and take him into protective custody weeks before the attack. It also criticized the Army Reserves, saying they should have taken more responsibility for properly storing and handling the weapons.

Kathleen Walker, the wife of Jason Walker, who was killed in the shooting, testified during the commission hearings: “The system has failed, and we cannot allow something like this to happen again.”

A month after the shooting, which took place in October 2023, the independent commission began its work investigating Card, an Army reservist. During the commission's public hearings, they noted the swift police response after the shooting, but also revealed chaos in the hunt for Card before he took his own life.

The commission's hearings detailed that some family members and other Army reservists believed Card had exhibited paranoid behavior for several months before the shooting. In July 2023, Card was hospitalized during an Army training session, and the report revealed that his commanding officer failed to provide for his care after Card was injured.

The report also revealed that a reservist sent a text message to his commander in September about Card, saying: “I think he's about to freak out and commit a massacre.”

In her own report following the mass shooting, former Army Reserve chief Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels found there were “a number of failures on the part of the unit's leadership.” The report also said three Army reservists were disciplined for dereliction of duty following the incident.

After the shooting, Maine passed a new gun law that required a three-day waiting period for firearms.

The Lewiston Commission, chaired by former Maine Supreme Court Chief Justice Daniel Wathen, is comprised of seven members: two former federal prosecutors, two other former judges, the state's former chief forensic psychologist and a private psychiatrist who serves as chief of staff at a mental health clinic.