AUGUSTA, Maine — A Sagadahoc County police sergeant said Thursday that a delayed report from Robert Card II’s military colleagues on threats to “shoot up” places slowed efforts to reach Card weeks before he committed Maine’s worst mass shooting on record.
Sgt. Aaron Skolfield and Deputy Chad Carleton’s testimony to the commission reviewing the lead-up and response to the Oct. 25 shooting came exactly three months after the carnage that left 18 people dead and 13 injured. Testimony also detailed how Carleton came up with the plan to contact Card’s unit about concerns regarding his mental health.
Carleton and Skolfield responded to reports of Card’s declining condition and large arsenal of guns in the months before the shooting at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar. The police officers pointed to shortcomings in the military’s response, from the communication of threats to allowing him to attend a July training exercise in New York.
Skolfield recalled the September memo from Card’s Army Reserve peer that said Card had mentioned he had guns and threatened to “shoot up” a Saco base and other places. Card had also accused military colleagues during the training stint of calling him a pedophile.
Skolfield also said his Sept. 15 response to the memo was affected by how Card’s friend and fellow reservist, Sean Hodgson, and Army Reserve superiors had not reached out to local police sooner. Skolfield said he initially thought the concerns about Card had come in the preceding 12 hours but really were from 36 hours earlier, which led him to treat them less urgently.
“That’s a big chunk of looking at this,” Skolfield said, calling it “a game of hot potato.”
Commissioner Toby Dilworth, a former federal prosecutor, pressed Skolfield on Thursday about whether Card’s threat could have given police the ability to charge Card with the crime of terrorizing. Skolfield replied it could have if the victim had pressed charges.
Experts have said the officers should have invoked a Maine law allowing a judge to authorize police to seize guns from dangerous people. Sheriff Joel Merry has said his office did not have enough information to invoke the “yellow flag” law, something backed up by a third-party review done for the office, which also said the Army Reserve downplayed warnings about Card.
“He had liberties at that time, and we have rules and laws we have to follow,” Carleton said Thursday.
Carleton met May 3 with Card’s son and ex-wife at Mt. Ararat High School, and the son shared how Card’s father raised concerns starting last January about his increasing paranoia and access to guns. An Ellsworth police officer in Card’s Army Reserve unit also contacted Carleton to share Card claimed other soldiers called him a pedophile, an accusation Card made about the bowling alley and bar he would end targeting in October as well.
Carleton said Thursday that Card’s ex-wife and son “were adamant” that Card not know they went to police. That led Carleton to contact Card’s Army Reserve base in Saco to try to get him help. After being told the branch would try to bring in Card for a visit and hearing from the ex-wife that things were improving, he did not have additional contact with Card or his family.
In July, Card went to a New York hospital for roughly two weeks of psychiatric treatment after Army Reserve peers expressed concerns about his behavior while training in West Point. The Army ruled Card should “not have a weapon, handle ammunition or participate in live-fire activity,” though the prohibition only applied to military weapons.
Carleton said he was “surprised” to learn in September that Card had gone on the New York training trip. Skolfield and another deputy went to Card’s Bowdoin home in mid-September after a member of his Army Reserve unit requested a wellness check due to concerns Card was acting erratic and threatening to shoot up his base in Saco. Deputies could hear Card moving around inside his residence, but Card did not come to the door.
After not locating Card, Merry had previously said his office sent a statewide alert to other law enforcement agencies that detailed Card’s recent behavior and how he may be armed and dangerous.
“Weeks and weeks went by where no one reached out to us,” Skolfield said Thursday.
Police have not shared how, where and when Card obtained the rifles and handgun found by his body two days after the shooting. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Under questioning from commission members who repeatedly asked about Card’s mental state and access to firearms, the sheriff’s office members reiterated that they felt their response was appropriate based on the information available to them at the time.
“If I had had more specific threats, and I thought that human life was truly in danger, I would like to think I would have approached the situation differently,” Carleton said.
Merry, Chief Deputy Brett Strout and Lt. Brian Quinn testified to the commission on Thursday afternoon during a hearing that lasted six hours. The meeting was the second time the independent commission had met publicly since the Oct. 25 shooting and the first to feature testimony from people tied to Card’s case.
The commission has invited Maine State Police, family members of shooting victims and Army personnel to testify at meetings in February and March. The Army Reserve is conducting two internal investigations of the lead-up to the Lewiston mass shooting, and the Army’s inspector general will launch an independent probe once those reviews conclude or by Feb. 1, whichever comes first.
