Police recall searching lot but not the trailer where Lewiston mass shooter was found

AUGUSTA, Maine — Local police who responded to the Lewiston mass shooting search for gunman Robert Card II described to a state commission Thursday how they checked various trailers in a recycling center lot but not the trailer where Card was later found dead.

Six members of the Lisbon and Lewiston police departments testified Thursday before the seven-member commission appointed by Gov. Janet Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey to investigate the lead-up and response to the Oct. 25 carnage at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar that left 18 dead and 13 injured in Maine’s worst mass shooting on record.

Thursday’s nearly three-hour meeting at the University of Maine at Augusta’s Randall Student Center, the fourth time the commission met publicly, included Lisbon officers who recalled checking open trailers by the recycling center in that town where Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist from Bowdoin, was eventually found dead Oct. 27 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Officials have previously said that Lisbon police and later a joint technical team had searched the Maine Recycling Corporation property but overlooked the overflow lot. But School Resource Officer Renee Bernard and Detective Richard St. Amant of the Lisbon police shared Thursday they did a “cursory” search of the overflow lot while driving together with a third colleague in the early morning hours of Oct. 26 after learning Card had previously worked at the center.

Bernard and St. Amant said they flashed a light on and underneath several trailers with open doors in the dimly-lit dirt lot while the three drove together in a cruiser and did not look inside closed trailers. That was in part because they had information Card was likely armed.

“Nothing stood out to give us any indication anyone was there,” Bernard said, adding the trio searched nearby other businesses in the Capital Avenue area of Lisbon Falls.

Commission members shared aerial maps with the officers Thursday that pointed out the trailer where Card’s body was found closer to a fence line. St. Amant confirmed the officers would have circled by the closed trailer but not checked it and other shuttered ones.

“Your upper torso and head are made readily available almost immediately,” St. Amant said, referring to getting exposed to a shooter behind a closed door.

The next day, St. Amant said a Maine Recycling Center official called to express concern that Card “might be able to access those trailers and hide” among the items inside and “specifically mentioned the trailers backed up along the fence  line.” St. Amant relayed that information to superiors, and Card’s body was discovered that day, 48 hours after the shooting.

Lisbon Police Chief Ryan McGee and St. Amant also described the large law enforcement response to a report of a possible third active shooting location on Oct. 25 at the Walmart distribution center on Alfred A. Plourde Parkway in Lewiston. No threat was identified.

McGee mentioned additional calls about possible shootings or sightings of suspicious individuals, a report of a “bang” heard inside a Lisbon greenhouse, concerned residents asking police to check their properties and other names of suspects getting “tossed around at first.”

“The calls continued to pour in,” McGee said, praising Maine State Police and other agencies and noting an autopsy found Card died eight to 12 hours before police found him.

Lewiston police officers responded in 90 seconds to the first call at 6:56 p.m. that evening of a shooting at Just-In-Time Recreation, but the quick response was still too late. Card had already started driving to Schemengees Bar and Grille, where he shot more people roughly 12 minutes later before fleeing the scene.

Seven people died at the bowling alley, and 11 people died at the bar. Later that evening, police found Card’s Subaru Outback at a Lisbon boat launch, almost 10 miles southeast of the bar. Lisbon Police Department Sgt. Nathan Morse described Thursday his discovery of the Subaru and then waiting for more backup — including a New Hampshire State Police helicopter and Topsham K-9 unit — to arrive.

Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre and Lt. James Theiss spoke Thursday about Maine State Police taking charge a few hours after the shooting and the work to quickly release information about the gunman.

While St. Pierre praised Thursday the coordination between agencies during the manhunt, an Androscoggin County sheriff’s deputy criticized state police on social media last year for not sharing enough information with local agencies, prompting a sharp response from state police Col. William Ross.

After family members of shooting victims testified last week and Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office personnel appeared in January, the panel initially planned on not meeting again until Feb. 15 to hear from Maine State Police and then March 7 to question U.S. Army personnel. But on Wednesday, it gave sudden notice of Thursday’s meeting to hear from local police.

Commission chair Daniel Wathen, a former Supreme Judicial Court chief justice, has said the goal is to produce a final report by late May, or six months after the panel first met. At that initial November meeting, the commission requested subpoena power from the Legislature.

Subpoena power legislation drafted by Gov. Janet Mills and top lawmakers in both parties is finally moving forward after the Judiciary Committee amended it last week to include a July 1 sunset provision and other tweaks. The bill sailed Thursday through the Maine House of Representatives and Senate and will reach Mills following additional procedural votes.

Subpoena power will allow the commission to obtain additional records and force witnesses to testify, which executive director Anne Jordan said is crucial after investigators have encountered people who have refused to appear or been directed by superiors to not appear. Jordan has not revealed names or agencies, but the Army has faced questions over how it handled warnings about Card, who was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment over the summer while training in New York with his reserve unit.