An independent report cleared a Maine police agency’s response to growing concerns about the mental health of a man who went on to commit the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history. The report did show missed opportunities to intervene, legal experts said. Despite receiving warnings about the man’s deteriorating mental health, drunken threats and possession of guns, the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office avoided confronting Robert Card, 40, the Army reservist who killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar on Oct. 25 in Lewiston, the Associated Press reports.
Card’s body was found — with a self-inflicted gunshot wound — two days after the shootings. Reports emerged that he had spent two weeks in a psychiatric hospital and had amassed weapons. Experts said the report — prepared for the sheriff by a lawyer who’s a retired federal drug agent— leaves unresolved questions about police’s potential ability to have removed guns from Card before the shootings. The report said that the police response to concerns about Card's mental health “was reasonable under the totality of the circumstances.” Sheriff Joel Merry said the review “found that responding deputies followed the law and their training with the information available at the time.” The report makes clear that local law enforcement knew Card’s mental health was deteriorating, with reports that he was paranoid, hearing voices, experiencing psychotic episodes and possibly dealing with schizophrenia. There was already enough evidence in May to begin the process of seizing Card’s weapons under the state's yellow flag law, said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor now heading the West Coast Trial Lawyers in Los Angeles, who reviewed the report. “A different approach to policing, or a different set of laws, might have saved a lot of lives,” Rahmani said.
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