Maine marks six month anniversary of Lewiston shooting
A memorial to victims of the mass shooting in Lewiston outside Schemengees Bar and Grille. (via First Lady Jill Biden/ Twitter)
Six months after Maine’s deadliest mass shooting, the state is still investigating the details of what happened leading up to the day a gunman opened fire at two locations in Lewiston killing 18 people.
“Six months ago, the tightly woven fabric of Maine was torn apart by a horrific attack that robbed us of the lives of eighteen beloved people – our family, friends, and neighbors – leaving an immense hole in the heart of our state and in the hearts of their families and the survivors hurt by wounds both seen and unseen,” said Gov. Janet Mills in a statement Thursday.
In Lewiston, a gathering is planned for 6:30 p.m. in Simard-Payne Memorial Park to commemorate those who lost their lives and support a community still reeling from the tragedy.
The mass shooting sparked a conversation about firearm safety in a state with a long-standing tradition of gun ownership. There has also been an ongoing effort to better understand how the deadly night of Oct. 25 came to be.
On Thursday, six months to the day of the shooting, the governor’s Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Tragedy in Lewiston held its ninth public hearing. This time it heard testimony from the director of Victim Services for the Maine Office of the Attorney General and several members of the U.S. Army Reserves.
Daryl Reed and Sean Hodgson, who both served as reservists with Robert Card, told the commission about the changes they observed in Card in the months leading up to the shooting and recounted the steps that the Army took in response to concerns about his mental health.
In an interim report released last month, the independent commission outlined how the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department failed to realize it had probable cause to implement the state’s yellow flag law — the current mechanism for temporarily confiscating weapons from a dangerous person.
The commission is expected to release a final report.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, lawmakers also put forth a slew of gun safety reforms, most of which passed and were sent to the governor for approval, including expanded background checks, a 72-hour waiting period for certain purchases and a ban on devices like bump stocks that turn firearms into illegal weapons. It remains unclear if Mills will sign all of those bills.
The most ambitious reform, a proposed red flag law, never made it to a final vote.
“As we mark the six-month anniversary of this terrible tragedy, we reaffirm our love and support for Lewiston, for the victims and their families, and for this precious place we call home, and we recommit ourselves to embracing and valuing one another, as imperfect as we may be, as we search for happiness in the short, blessed time we have here,” Mills said in her statement.
“Our hearts are still healing, and the road to healing is long, but we will continue to walk it together.”
The post Maine marks six month anniversary of Lewiston shooting appeared first on Maine Morning Star.
