PORTLAND, Maine — A report released Friday found that police should have taken away a man’s guns and put him in protective custody weeks before he committed Maine’s deadliest mass shooting.
An independent commission has been examining the events leading up to Army reservist Robert Card killing 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston on Oct. 25, and the response that followed.
The commission criticized Sgt. Aaron Skolfield, who had responded to a report five weeks before the shooting that Card was experiencing some kind of mental health crisis after he had previously assaulted a friend and threatened to shoot up the Saco Armory.
The commission found that Skolfield, of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office, should have realized he had reasonable cause to initiate a so-called “yellow flag” process, which allows a judge to temporarily take away somebody’s guns during a psychiatric health crisis.
Maine State Police and the sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.
Commission Chair Daniel Wathen said their work was not finished and that the interim report was meant to provide policymakers and law enforcement with important information they had discovered.
“Nothing we do can ever change what happened on that terrible day, but knowing the facts can help provide the answers that the victims, their families, and the people of Maine need and deserve,” Wathen said in a statement.
Ben Gideon, a lawyer representing the victims, said he felt the report focused heavily on the actions of the sheriff’s office while ignoring the broader issue of access to guns by potentially dangerous people in the state. Elizabeth Seal, whose husband Joshua was killed in the shootings, said she felt the focus of the report was “narrow.”
“I’m in agreement with the committee’s findings as far as they go, and I do think it’s a legitimate point that the Sagadahoc Sheriff’s Office could have done more to intervene,” Gideon said. “I was a little disappointed that the committee didn’t take a wider view of the issues that start as far back as May.”
He also said he hoped the report would make the shooter’s health records available to victims and the public, which it did not.
Led by a former chief justice of Maine’s highest court, the commission also included a former U.S. attorney and the former chief forensic psychologist for the state. It was assembled by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey.
It has held seven sessions starting in November, hearing from law enforcement, survivors and victims’ family members and members of the U.S. Army Reserve as it explored whether anything could have been done to prevent the tragedy and what changes should be made going forward.
The commission plans to schedule more meetings. Spokesperson Kevin Kelley said a final report was due in the summer.
Mills said the panel’s work is of “paramount importance for the people of Maine.” She said she would “carefully review” the report.
Card, who was found dead by suicide after a two-day search, was well-known to law enforcement, and his family and fellow service members had raised flags about his behavior, deteriorating mental health and potential for violence before the shootings.
In May, family members told police that Card had become very fearful, and they were worried about him having guns. In July, Card was taken to a mental health unit for two weeks after pushing a fellow reservist and locking himself in a motel room. In August, the Army stopped him from using weapons while on duty and said he couldn't be sent to combat. In September, a fellow reservist messaged an Army supervisor expressing growing worries about Card, saying, “I think he's going to lose control and carry out a mass shooting.”
Officials in law enforcement told commission members that Maine's yellow flag law makes it hard to take away guns from people who might be dangerous.
“I couldn't get him to the door. I can't make him open the door,” Skolfield said about his visit to Card’s home for a welfare check in September. “If I had kicked in the door, that would’ve been a violation of the law.”
In later testimony, those involved in the search for Card after the shooting admitted that there were chances they might have missed to locate him and stop the search that paralyzed the community and scared residents. Some of the most emotional testimony came from family members who tearfully described scenes of blood, chaos, and panic followed by unbelievable loss.
Rachael Sloat, who was engaged to shooting victim Peton Berwer Ross, told the committee that her heart breaks every time their 2-year-old daughter asks for her daddy.
“Where are you?” she said. “Every politician, every member of law enforcement, every registered voter in the country — I want you to hear those words. ‘Where are you?’ Because my fellow Americans, where are you? We failed my little girl.”
