See the Globe’s complete coverage of the Maine shootings.
A civilian psychiatric hospital in New York tried to have Robert R. Card II involuntarily committed last summer after he told them he had a hit list, but released him nearly three months before he went on a shooting rampage in Lewiston, Maine.
The troubling detail, revealed Tuesday in investigative reports conducted by the military, was the latest of many warning signs authorities received, but failed to follow through on, of the Army reservist’s menacing and disturbing behavior in the months leading up to the Oct. 25 shooting.
The reports by the Army Reserve and the Army’s inspector general contained details that angered relatives of Card’s victims, who demanded accountability for those failures.
“All of our kids, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers would be alive today if the Army Reserve unit took care of him, and they didn’t,” Leroy Walker Sr., whose son Joseph was among the 18 people killed by Card, said Tuesday. “They missed all the signs that this man was skating on thin ice, they just didn’t take care of him.”
Those reports said military officials had no authority to seize Card’s personal trove of guns, even after mental health experts who evaluated him at Army and civilian hospitals in New York last summer recommended he shouldn’t have access to firearms.
The Reserve report also laid out failures by Card’s military chain of command to follow procedures, including related to his care after leaving the hospital. Administrative action has been taken against three officers overseeing Card’s unit for dereliction of duty, according to the Army Reserve.
“Good leaders care about their soldiers, and they make sure that their civilian [lives] are proceeding as well as it can,” Lieutenant General Jody J. Daniels, the chief of the Army Reserve, told reporters during a briefing.
The 115-page Army Reserve report included findings from 43 witnesses, and focused on Card’s 19-day stay at Four Winds hospital in Katonah, N.Y., where he was admitted after getting into a fight during training with his Reserve unit last summer. According to the Reserve, the civilian hospital staff refused to speak with its investigator, and the Reserve never learned why Card was allowed to leave the facility.
“Despite the disturbing information regarding a ‘hit list,’ Four Winds discharged [Sergeant First Class] Card without an adequate plan for follow-on care or notification to the chain of command or proper authorities regarding the potential danger SFC Card posed,” according to the report, written by a Reserve investigator.
Representatives for Four Winds did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The separate 21-page Army Inspector General’s report, which reviewed the Reserve’s investigation, argued that there was little service members could have done in the months prior to the shooting to stop Card.
Travis Brennan, an attorney for about 90 Lewiston shooting survivors and the families of the victims, said at a press conference Tuesday that the reports underline a “consistent theme” of Card showing repeated warning signs in the months before he opened fire inside Lewiston’s Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley and a short time later at Schemengees Bar & Grille.
“Those warnings were overlooked and ignored, the system failed here, and this tragedy occurred,” Brennan said.
Card, 40, of Bowdoin, experienced a rapid decline in his mental health over the course of roughly a year prior to the Lewiston mass shooting. Authorities were repeatedly told by Card’s family and Army colleagues they were concerned about his erratic behavior and access to guns.
Card’s teenage son and ex-wife told police they were worried about Card in May 2023, but the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office never spoke to Card, though the warnings were repeated to Card’s reserve unit in Saco.
His Army colleagues flagged his behavior during training in New York last July, after they had to restrain Card during an argument with a fellow soldier.
Card’s fellow soldier, Sean Hodgson, told his superiors in September he worried Card would commit a mass shooting. Card had made threats against the unit’s Saco base and he had punched Hodgson during a drive home from a casino in Oxford, Maine.
A Maine state commission investigating Card reported in March that local police were asked by the Army Reserve to conduct a well-being check on Card. But police did not invoke that state’s yellow flag law process to secure his weapons, even though they had probable cause to do so, according to the commission.
Both Army investigations recommended improvements to Army procedures, including the training around mental health issues and treatment, and a review of Army health programs.
The Reserve report also revealed new details about Card’s 19-day stay at Four Winds last summer, where his symptoms included psychosis and “homicidal ideations,” and his behavior raised concerns among hospital staff about his access to personal weapons.
Following his altercation with fellow soldiers during training last summer, Card was ordered by his commander to undergo an evaluation at Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point, N.Y., on July 16, 2023. A psychiatric nurse practitioner there determined Card showed signs of psychosis and paranoia, was unfit for duty, and recommended Card undergo treatment at a civilian mental health facility.
Card voluntarily went to Four Winds, the nurse told the Maine commission in recent public testimony.
At Four Winds, staff found Card’s “lifetime risk for violence” might have been somewhat higher than most people, particularly when he was paranoid and emotionally overwrought, according to a Four Winds record quoted by the Reserve report.
Card also “appeared to be resistant to psycho-education” throughout his treatment when discussing presentation of symptoms, the report said. He often appeared to place blame on others for his behaviors, stating that ‘they were messing with me,’” the report said.
Card was diagnosed with “Brief Psychotic Disorder” and prescribed psychiatric medication and recommended follow-on treatment, according to the Reserve.
The Reserve remains unsure why Card was allowed to leave Four Winds, according to its report. Card asked to be released from the hospital, and the hospital moved to seek a court-ordered hold to keep Card hospitalized, the report said.
But for reasons that are unclear, Card rescinded his request to leave, and his Aug. 2, 2023 court date was canceled. Card left Four Winds the following day, the report said. At the time of his discharge, Card “did not demonstrate a risk of harm to self or others.”
According to the Reserve, hospital staff declined to speak with its investigators, saying they would need a court order to do so.
The Reserve report also outlined other failures by Card’s chain of command in following procedures related to his care after leaving the hospital. The Reserve said action has been taken against three officers in Card’s command for dereliction of duty for failing to follow procedures, including not reporting concerns about Card to higher-level commanders, and for failing to properly document his medical condition and hospital stay following his release from Four Winds, according to Daniels, the Army Reserve chief.
The Reserve declined to name the officers or describe the disciplinary steps taken, but the report said the “nature of the adverse administrative action can effectively preclude further military advancement” for those officers.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com or on Signal at john_hilliard.70. Follow him on Bluesky at iamjohnhilliard.bsky.social.