Panel investigates Lewiston investigating Army Reservists press for shooter

A committee investigating the October mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, questioned colleagues of the shooter, Robert R. Card Jr., at an Army Reserve hearing and pressed for answers about their failed efforts to prevent he would cause harm and provoke some of the violence. most detailed accounts yet of the months leading up to the disaster.

Committee members delved into key moments of inaction by military supervisors who were aware of the shooter’s threats, erratic behavior and access to weapons, and sought accountability from the many law enforcement agencies and military personnel who raised concerns about Mr Card, as his mental condition deteriorated last year.

“Since families cannot control their own guns, was it a very good plan that relied on the family removing its guns?” George Dilworth, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Maine and a member of the committee, asked Army Reserve Capt. Jeremy Reamer, who was involved in the response to Mr. Card’s troubling behavior.

After a failed attempt by the local sheriff’s office to check on Mr. Card’s welfare in September, authorities consulted with his family on a plan to secure his firearms.

“I didn’t know the family dynamics, so I can’t comment on that, but it was a plan, and in my experience, a viable plan,” said Captain Reamer, his voice soft and his demeanor solemn as he sat. alone at the witness table.

On the night of Oct. 25, Mr. Card, a 40-year-old Army Reserve grenade instructor, shot and killed 18 people at two popular Lewiston recreation spots, a bowling alley and a bar where cornhole enthusiasts gathered to relax. After a two-day manhunt for the missing gunman, he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The seven-member Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Lewiston Tragedy did not discuss Thursday an autopsy report released this week detailing the findings of Boston University scientists who examined the gunman’s brain and found significant identified damage. The trauma they found was similar to damage found in the brains of veterans exposed to weapon explosions, the researchers said. A spokesperson for the committee did not immediately respond when asked whether it wanted to hear testimony from the scientists.

The findings shed new light on the symptoms of mental illness that Mr. Card began exhibiting last year, a year after he began losing his hearing and nearly a decade after he began teaching summer courses for the Army Reserve. This included live grenade training for military cadets, work that exposed him to thousands of blasts.

A 2020 study by Army researchers found rampant abnormalities in the brains of grenade and explosives instructors. But the military has been slow to investigate more deeply or implement changes that could help protect personnel from harm.

Mr Card’s family made the autopsy findings public on Wednesday, along with an apology to the victims’ families. The gunman’s sister, Nicole Herling, said in an interview that the additional insight had allowed her to forgive her brother, whose exposure to the explosion and resulting trauma may have been a factor in his actions.

During previous sessions, the committee heard from local, state and federal law enforcement officials, as well as family members of the dead, who struggled to understand how the gunman was able to keep his weapons despite being considered a threat.

At times, the testimonies offered glimpses of a stop-and-start response to widespread concerns about the troubled Army reservist, with moments of intense intervention followed by missed opportunities and lost momentum.

The committee, which has met six times since January, planned to issue an interim report with its findings later this month, the spokesperson said.

Questions to the five witnesses on Thursday focused on their failure to monitor the gunman’s mental health after his release from a two-week stay in a psychiatric hospital last summer and after a colleague expressed concerns to superiors in mid-September that Mr. Card would “go shooting and do a mass shooting.”

One witness, Army Reserve First Sgt. Kelvin Mote recalled an interaction in which Mr. Card looked blankly through him with a “thousand-yard stare,” a moment that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Sergeant Mote also described his urgent and successful effort to have Mr. Card committed to a New York psychiatric hospital in July after hearing him describe himself as “capable” of harming others.

Sergeant Mote said he tried to call Mr Card three times after his release to follow up, but was unable to reach him. And when the local police’s attempt to check on his welfare failed because Mr. Card was not home or did not answer the door, Sergeant Mote said, “There was nothing I could do.”

“You could have contacted the Army Reserve psychiatric program, the resources that were available to members and their families,” said Paula Silsby, a committee member and a former U.S. attorney, said.

“Yes, on paper,” he said.

“But you didn’t,” said Mrs. Silsby.

Dave Phillips reporting contributed.