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Aug. 20, 2024, 12:00 PM EDT / Updated Aug. 20, 2024, 1:24 PM EDT
By Erik Ortiz
Almost 10 months after an Army reservist's deadly rampage in Lewiston, Maine, an independent commission said Tuesday that local law enforcement and the U.S. military had missed "several opportunities" that, if taken, "might have changed the course of these tragic events."
While the independent commission's final report found that gunman Robert Card was solely responsible for his own conduct, other lapses played a role, including:
A Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office sergeant conducting a welfare check on Card weeks before the shooting had "sufficient probable cause" to take him into protective custody under state law.
The leaders of Card's Army Reserve unit "failed to undertake necessary steps to reduce the threat he posed to the public," such as ignoring "strong recommendations" from his mental health providers to stay engaged with his care and ensure any weapons in his home were removed, and they "neglected to share" with the local sheriff's office all of the information they knew about past threats he had made.
The gunman's company commander had the ability to store service members' personal firearms and failed to properly check back in with Card after he was placed in a psychiatric unit last summer at an Army training in West Point, New York, where he got into a physical altercation with another reservist.
Medical staff members at Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point, where Card was initially evaluated last summer, failed to file a so-called SAFE Act notice, which is used to alert authorities when someone may be a danger to themselves or others.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills launched the commission a month after the Oct. 25 shooting killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar.