See the Globe’s complete coverage of the Lewiston shootings.
Bobbi Nichols still grapples with the trauma from that awful night last fall in Lewiston, Maine. The sound of gunfire. The sight of the wounded. The heartache of losing so many people, including her beloved sister, Tricia Asselin.
For more than nine months, Nichols has been among scores of survivors and loved ones waiting for the findings of a state commission investigating Robert R. Card II, who killed 18 people and wounded 13 others, at a Lewiston bowling alley and a restaurant on Oct. 25.For Nichols and other survivors and victims’ families, it has been an agonizing wait for the commission’s final report, which it expects to release Tuesday at Lewiston City Hall. In separate interviews, Nichols, shooting survivor Ben Dyer, and Leroy Walker Sr., whose son was killed by Card, each said they wanted a full accounting of what went wrong, who bore responsibility for the failures that allowed Card access to guns, and a plan to prevent a future mass shooting.
“Too many people [were] passing the buck, and you got 18 people dead,” said Nichols, who survived the gunfire at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, where her sister was killed. “I want to see transparency, I want to see accountability, I want to see something done so this doesn’t happen again.”
In 16 public meetings to hear testimony from witnesses, many of whom were subpoenaed to appear, victims and their families have heard alarming details of how Card retained access to his private trove of guns, despite repeated warnings last year by his family, friends, and colleagues, to the Army Reserve and local police. The alerts included his threats to commit a shooting and reports about his deteriorating mental health and growing paranoia.
Not all of the commission’s work has been made public. Investigators have amassed thousands of pages of records, including from local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, the US Army, and medical facilities, the commission has said. It has also subpoenaed Card’s medical records from civilian and Army hospitals in New York, where he was treated last summer.
Investigators on the commission, launched by Governor Janet Mills in November, have gone to great lengths to document failures. An Army report found Card was able to leave a mental health hospital last summer, despite having a diagnosis of psychosis and a “hit list,” and showing signs of “homicidal ideations.”
The Maine commission has said local police last September didn’t initiate Maine’s yellow flag law, which allows a judge to temporarily remove somebody’s guns during a psychiatric health crisis, despite having probable cause to do so with Card. And his Army Reserve commander didn’t ensure Card kept up with mental health treatment following his hospitalization.
For Walker, whose son Joseph Walker was killed trying to stop Card at Schemengees Bar & Grille, the investigations have raised serious concerns about whether Card’s Army superiors failed to address his mental health, despite ample evidence he was not well.
“That has been what has upset me, probably through all of this, is that they have dodged answering the questions and taking responsibility through this whole thing,” Walker said. “They’ve kind of blown it off, that it’s somebody’s else’s fault.”
The commission has said its final report would include recommendations to address the problems it uncovered that led up to the shootings.
Dyer, who was badly wounded at Schemengees, said the commission’s final report must provide recommendations to solve the problems it has uncovered, particularly the failures within the mental health system.
“People have admitted that there were mistakes made, but again, no one says how to rectify those mistakes,” Dyer said. “We can all identify that things weren’t done correctly by lots of people, in lots of places.”
The commission must also offer solutions, he said: “You ought to have a plan to fix it.”
The panel has already focused on some specific issues. In March, it released an interim report that harshly criticized Sergeant Aaron Skolfield of the Sagadahoc Sheriff’s Department for not implementing the yellow flag law and beginning the process of seizing Card’s guns, despite having probable cause to do so. (Skolfield has argued he wasn’t able to implement the law because he never had a “face-to-face” encounter with Card, according to the commission.)
Commissioners have also said Card’s Army superior, Captain Jeremy Reamer, failed to ensure Card kept up with mental health treatment after ordering him to undergo an evaluation last summer. Army reports released last month said the military had no authority to seize Card’s personal firearms, even as they forbade him access to military weapons.
Benjamin Gideon, one of the attorneys helping to represent about 90 Lewiston shooting survivors and their families, said their main criticism of the commission’s process so far is that people have been making criticisms and suggesting improvements in a “fairly peripheral” way. Focusing on a small local sheriff’s office, for example, ignores other players who were involved in Card’s case.
“I think at the end of the day, we’d like to see findings and recommendations that are commensurate with the enormity of what happened,” Gideon said, “and not nibbling around the edges of a problem, but addressing it head on.”
In the shooting’s aftermath, Mills signed new gun measures into law in April. While the new measures don’t require universal background checks, they are required for private purchases of guns sold on sites like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. The law also allows police to go directly to a judge for a warrant without requiring a face-to-face meeting with someone they believe should not have access to guns.
Some advocates hope the commission’s final report points out further steps Maine lawmakers can take to address gun violence.
“These kinds of tragedies are preventable with common-sense tools in place that allow families and law enforcement to ensure people at extreme risk to themselves or others don’t have access to deadly firearms while they’re in crisis,” said Nacole Palmer, executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition.
As the first anniversary of the shooting approaches, expectations surrounding the commission’s final report swirl. And the pain caused by the rampage has not ebbed.
Many religious leaders are planning a statewide prayer vigil for Oct. 1, said the Rev. Jane Field, who serves as executive director of the Maine Council of Churches.
“It is fresh in everybody’s minds. All you have to say is, ‘Lewiston,’ " Field said. “Everyone knows what you’re talking about.”
She hoped that the report will offer some relief for the families impacted by the shootings.
“I hope either between the lines or through the words, you get a sense of compassion for the victims and the families first and foremost, but also for the family of Robert Card,” Field said. “Their hearts were broken.”
Card’s family has repeatedly apologized for the shooting. Nicole Herling, Card’s sister, told the commission in May that they were “unable to comprehend that Robbie was capable of such horror.”
For Nichols, the bowling alley survivor, details of that October night remain painfully raw. She recalls a loud bang and then chaos. People ran for the exit; she remembers falling and seeing a person hit by gunfire. She was among a group who managed to make it outside; she learned that night her sister didn’t survive.
Nichols remains in counseling and focuses on honoring Asselin. That includes an Aug. 24 celebration of her sister’s life in Auburn to raise money for a scholarship in her name.
She said that survivors and families of victims deserve to know how authorities plan to prevent another mass shooting. But if the commission’s report falls short, people will not remain silent.
“We want accountability, and if you’re not going to do it, then we’re not going to go away,” Nichols said.
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.