Both the Army Reserves and local police missed out on opportunities to intervene in a gunman’s psychiatric crisis and seize weapons from the reservist responsible for the deadliest shootings in Maine history, said a report released Tuesday by a commission created to investigate the attacks, which killed 18 people. The independent commission, which held more than a dozen public meetings, heard from scores of witnesses and reviewed thousands of pages of evidence, cited shortcomings by police for failing to take the gunman’s weapons and by the Army Reserves for failing to provide proper care for the 40-year-old gunman, Robert Card, the Associated Press reports. The commission, created by Gov. Janet Mills, announced its conclusions at Lewiston City Hall, less than 3 miles from the two sites where the shootings took place Oct. 25, 2023.
The 215-page report reiterated the panel’s conclusion from an interim finding in March that law enforcement had authority under the state’s yellow flag law to seize Card's guns and put him in protective custody weeks before the shootings. It also said the Army Reserves also should have done more, as well, to ensure care and deal with the weapons. Daniel Wathen, chair of the commission, acknowledged the victims. “None of us can begin to imagine the pain you people have experienced on that terrible day,” he said. He said it’s impossible know if the shootings would have happened if police and the Army had done a better job. He also said police did their best to respond but noted that there was “utter chaos” when hundreds of police officers poured into the region. The commission began its work a month after the mass shooting by Card, an Army reservist who too his own life in the incident. Over nine months, there has been emotional testimony from family members and survivors of the shooting, law enforcement officials and U.S. Army Reserves personnel, and others.
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