Cops Were Warned About Maine Gunman’s Declining Mental Health in May
In May, members of Robert Card’s family contacted police in Maine, concerned that he had access to firearms at home given his mental state, which had been declining since January. Deputies would speak with the family as well as representatives from Card’s Army Reserve Unit over the ensuing months, and attempt to make contact with Card on multiple occasions in mid-September. They were unsuccessful.
Just over a month later, Card would commit the deadliest mass shooting in Maine’s history, killing 18 people in a rampage that also left more than a dozen others wounded.
A detailed timeline and other records released on Monday evening by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office revealed the extent to which police were aware of Card’s increasingly alarming behavior, including indications he was hearing voices and was planning to carry out a shooting.
After being contacted by Card’s family on May 3, a police deputy connected them with representatives of his unit in Saco, Maine. The Army representatives told the sheriff’s office that “they would ensure that Card received medical attention,” according to a police statement. “In addition, Mr. Card’s unit sergeant shared his plan to speak with Card.”
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In July, Card underwent a medical evaluation while training at the U.S. Military Academy in New York, an Army spokesperson told CBS News earlier on Monday. The Army determined that Card was “acting erratically,” the spokesperson said, and that he shouldn’t be allowed access to weapons, ammunition, or “live fire activity.” He was labeled “non-deployable,” and was treated at a psychiatric hospital for two weeks before being released, according to information the Army later shared with police.
Two months later, the Army Reserve asked the sheriff’s office to perform a wellness check on Card. His paranoid behavior had escalated, according to police records, and he was lashing both verbally and, in at least two cases, physically, reportedly shoving one soldier and punching another.
At least one other reservist believed at this point that Card could “snap and commit a mass shooting,” according to a report filed in connection with the wellness check obtained by CNN.
The Daily Beast has contacted an Army spokesperson for comment.
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Deputies visited Card’s home twice on Sept. 15 and 16, less than six weeks before the massacres. On the second visit, with Card’s car outside the trailer, two officers knocked on the door and gave up, writing in a report that they hadn’t seen him or heard any voices—though one thought he might have heard someone moving around inside.
From there, police spoke to Card’s unit commander, who said that Card no longer had any Army weapons. He said they wanted to “let Card have time to himself,” according to the police. A sergeant also spoke with Card’s brother, Ryan Card, who said the family would “work to secure” any other weapons he had.
The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 18 canceled an “attempt to locate” alert it had sent out to Maine law enforcement agencies earlier that week, warning that Card was armed and dangerous.
“We believe that our agency acted appropriately and followed procedures for conducting an attempt to locate and wellness check,” Sheriff Joel Merry of Sagadahoc County said in the statement.
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Card, 40, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Friday, two days after attacking the bowling alley Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille. In the days since, representatives have been pressed to explain law enforcement’s response—both before and after the shootings took place.
The frantic effort to locate Card was led by the Maine State Police, which was not involved in the police attempts to contact him in the months before the shooting. (“This wasn’t our department,” a spokesperson told The Daily Beast.)
The state police were criticized in fierce terms by a sergeant in the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office over the weekend. Jon Guay, a 24-year veteran of the department, excoriated the botched search and “radio silence” from the top in a since-deleted Facebook post, alleging that local officers had effectively been boxed out and “left idle.”
“The upper echelons of the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit and Command Staff are utter clowns and I wouldn’t hire them to manage the morning rush at Dunkin Donuts much less an investigation of this size,” he seethed, according to a screenshot obtained by the Bangor Daily News.
Androscoggin County Sheriff Eric Samson told the local newspaper on Monday that he’d discussed the post with Guay on Sunday, but did not ask him to take it down. He said he could understand the officer’s perspective.
“You look at that tragedy, and you look at what we have all been through—everybody involved,” Samson said. “But he was expressing his frustration, and I get it.”
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