Maine’s senators are calling for the Army to investigate how it handled concerns about a reservist who later carried out the state’s deadliest mass shooting.
In a Nov. 2 letter to Army Inspector General Lt. Gen. Donna Martin, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King questioned why Army officials didn’t appear to trigger laws in two states designed to disarm dangerous people, despite Robert R. Card II’s threat to “shoot up” the Army Reserve base in Saco.
Collins and King cited Card’s “troubling behaviors” leading up to the shooting, citing a Bangor Daily News report from last week.
The news marks an escalation of scrutiny over the Army’s actions leading up to the Oct. 25 mass shooting in Lewiston that killed 18 people, wounded 13 more, and led to a two-day lockdown of the area while authorities searched for the gunman. Card, a sergeant first class in the Army Reserve, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Oct. 27.
The senators laid out seven questions about what the Army knew, what it did, and whether it plans to reform policies.
Whether authorities could have prevented the massacre has been a major question in the days after the shooting. Maine police were warned at least twice about Card’s deteriorating mental state before the shooting, but did not use a state law that may have taken his guns away.
“As we continue to grieve the needless loss of life that day, we must work to fully understand what happened — and what could have been done differently that might have prevented this tragedy — on the local, state, and federal levels,” wrote Collins, a Republican, and King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
The Army Reserve said last week it was conducting two “internal administrative investigations” into Card, but their focus was unclear.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills also plans to form a commission to investigate the circumstances that led to the mass shooting.