Survivors of the mass shooting that killed 18 people last October in Lewiston, Maine, notified the Defense Department on Tuesday that they intended to sue the military for negligence, the New York Times reports. Dozens of survivors, along with a smaller number of relatives of the victims, said that the Army had failed to responsibly address the shooter’s declining mental health and threats of violence. Nearly one year after the mass shooting, which took place at a bar and a nearby bowling alley, lawyers for the survivors and the victims’ families cited “numerous unheeded red flags and warning signs that should have triggered action on the part of the Army.” Such action, they said, might have prevented the shooting.
The behavior of the gunman, Robert R. Card II, a 40-year-old Army Reserve grenade instructor from Bowdoin, Maine, had concerned Army colleagues and supervisors for months before the shooting, which was the worst in Maine history. But even as his threats and erratic behavior escalated last fall, neither the Army nor anyone else took away his firearms. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound two days after the shooting.
“The Army knew more about the risks he posed than anyone else, and had multiple opportunities to intervene, yet they failed at every turn,” said Travis Brennan, a lawyer representing the families and the survivors. “Unless people stand up and speak out about the broken systems that lead to these shootings, nothing will change.”