AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey appointed the former chief justice of Maine’s high court to lead the panel investigating the events leading up to the Lewiston mass shooting and the two-day search for the killer.
Mills announced last week she would set up an independent commission in the wake of the Oct. 25 massacre at a bar and bowling alley that killed 18 people and injured 13 others. It is Maine’s deadliest mass shooting ever and the 10th deadliest in U.S. history.
The probe from the new Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Tragedy in Lewiston will determine the facts of the shooting, including the months leading up to it and the police response. A news release from Mills and Frey, both Democrats, did not make clear which parts of its work would be public or whether the panel would have subpoena power.
It will be the most closely critiqued look at the shooting perpetrated by 40-year-old Army reservist Robert R. Card II of Bowdoin, who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound two days later. The months leading up to it were marked by warning signs of Card’s mental instability. A Maine State Police-led manhunt for him has also been criticized.
Former Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Daniel Wathen will chair the commission, which six others will sit on. Wathen said he would not discuss the panel’s plans until an organizational meeting that would be scheduled soon, referring more specific questions to Kevin Kelley, a spokesperson for the new body.
“The commission is committed to conducting as much work as possible in an open setting, while also being sensitive to privacy concerns, so that the people of Maine can see for themselves that each member is dedicated to pursuing the facts regardless of where they lead,” he said.
“The commission is committed to conducting as much work as possible in an open setting, while also being sensitive to privacy concerns, so that the people of Maine can see for themselves that each member is dedicated to pursuing the facts regardless of where they lead,” he said.
The other members are Debra Baeder, Maine’s former chief forensic psychologist; Toby Dilworth, a former assistant U.S. attorney; Ellen Gorman, a former high-court justice; Geoffrey Rushlau, a former Maine judge and district attorney; Dr. Anthony Ng, medical director of community services for Northern Light Acadia Hospital; and former U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby.
“All that we ask is that you follow the facts, wherever they may lead, and that you do so in an independent and objective manner, biased by no one and guided only by the pursuit of truth,” Mills and Frey wrote in a letter to the commission.
The investigation could be sweeping. Police were warned twice going back to May that Card was delusional and heavily armed. It culminated in a superior Army Reserve officer alerting police in September to fears that Card would “snap and do a mass shooting.” A Sagadahoc County sheriff’s deputy went to Card’s house, but he never made contact with him.
Experts have said this should have invoked Maine’s “yellow flag” law, which allows police to temporarily confiscate guns from someone deemed to be a threat to themselves or others after taking the subject into protective custody, getting the opinion of a health professional and having a judge approve the order.
Mills’ call for an investigation has also been scrutinized. For example, Rep. Adam Lee, D-Auburn, has said the Legislature and not the governor should drive the probe, something that Matt Gagnon, the CEO of the conservative Maine Policy Institute, echoed in a recent Bangor Daily News column.
On Thursday, Gagnon said the membership of the panel looked “insular” and that he would have liked to have seen police and those with experience in mental health services represented.
“The governor should’ve sought broader involvement in the creation of this commission,” he said.
BDN writer Billy Kobin contributed to this report.
Correction: An earlier version of this report misstated the number of members who sit on the commission.