See the Globe’s complete coverage of the Lewiston shootings.
LEWISTON, Maine – A state commission’s final report on Maine’s worst mass shooting detailed a damning series of failures by the Army Reserve and local law enforcement that allowed a military reservist with a diagnosis of psychosis to keep a personal trove of guns even as he alarmed family, friends, and colleagues with threats of violence in the months before.
The 215-page report released Tuesday provides the most comprehensive accounting of the events leading to last Oct. 25, when reservist Robert R. Card II killed 18 people and wounded more than a dozen more at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston.
As described by the commission, those failures compounded one another. Local police never confronted Card, despite warnings from his family that he was paranoid, had weapons, and threatened to commit a shooting. A New York hospital released Card last summer, under the mistaken belief that the Army Reserve petitioned to have Card’s guns seized. The military failed to share complete information about Card’s aggressive actions and threats with local law enforcement, or made sure Card received mental health care.
But the commission’s final report was more of a retrospective rather than a road map forward. Any accountability and legal changes will likely be decided through impending lawsuits.
“The investigation has now been completed, and we, on behalf of the families, feel that the next step in this process needs to be real accountability, and that’s where we come in,” said attorney Benjamin Gideon, who along with Travis Brennan represents about 90 shooting survivors and victims’ families.
Standing on the Lewiston City Hall steps after the commission released its report, the pair said they expect to file lawsuits in the coming months.
Commission chair Daniel E. Wathen, former chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, said the panel’s job was to create a detailed, clear timeline and body of facts to serve as the official record. It’s up to politicians and the courts, he said, to act.
”We found the facts, and from those facts, people will draw their own conclusions,” Wathen said.
Maine Governor Janet Mills, who appointed the commission in November, said in a statement that she “will offer my views to the people of Maine after I have read and evaluated [the report.]”
Many details in the new report had already been made public through media reports, government records, and testimony during the commission’s 16 public meetings over the past nine months. The final report from the commission, which had subpoena power and says it used it multiple times, includes a rundown of Card’s descent into psychosis and levels pointed new criticism at the Army Reserve.
The unit “failed to undertake necessary steps to reduce the threat he posed to the public,” the commission wrote. “His commanding officers were well aware of his auditory hallucinations, increasingly aggressive behavior, collection of guns, and ominous comments about his intentions.”
The Army said in a statement it is “committed to reviewing the findings and implementing sound changes to prevent tragedies like this from recurring.” A spokesperson noted an internal investigation led to discipline against three officers in Card’s chain of command, as well as changes to operating procedures to have commanding officers become involved when soldiers are not complying with mental-health treatment.
Even with limited information from the Army Reserve, the commission found the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office had sufficient probable cause to take Card into protective custody and remove his weapons under Maine’s “yellow flag law” about one month before the shooting.
Sagadahoc Sheriff Joel Merry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Around 7 p.m. on Oct. 25, a cheerful night at two popular gathering places in Lewiston devolved into scenes of horror when Card, 40, of Bowdoin, opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle on patrons of Schemengees Bar & Grille and the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley. Card was found nearly two days later in Lisbon, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.
Card had experienced a rapid decline in his mental health in the months before the massacre. His family, friends, and colleagues grew worried about his increasingly erratic behavior, anger, and paranoia.
In May 2023, Card’s teenage son and ex-wife alerted police about Card becoming angry at an irrational belief that people were calling him a pedophile and said he had just picked up as many as 15 guns from his brother’s house, authorities have said. The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office passed along the warnings to Card’s Reserve unit, based in Saco, but did not make contact with him.
The following July, Card joined his unit in New York to help train West Point cadets. But his erratic behavior led Card’s commander, Captain Jeremy Reamer, to order him to undergo an evaluation at the Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point. There, staff recommended he be admitted to the Four Winds psychiatric hospital in Katonah, N.Y.
While at Four Winds, he showed symptoms of psychosis and “homicidal ideations” and told staff he had a “hit list,” according to an Army Reserve report on the shooting released in July.
Staff tried to have him involuntarily committed by a state court, but instead, his Aug. 2, 2023, court date was canceled and Card left the facility the following day, according to the Reserve. The Four Winds physician who treated Card told the commission that “given Card’s progress in treatment, his agreement to continue his medications and participate in therapy and his stabilization at that point in time, she did not feel that the hospital would be successful in court,” the final report said.
Four Winds did not respond to Globe questions Tuesday.
When he was released, the hospital psychiatrist talked about “the need to see that the firearms were removed from Card’s home,” according to the commission’s final report. She called a doctor at the Army hospital and asked him to file a petition to have his weapons removed under a New York state law.
None was ever filed, the report found, because local authorities believed the New York law could not apply to the Maine resident. That, the report found, was a misunderstanding of the law. Nevertheless, the Four Winds’ discharge summary for Card, which was sent to the Keller Army Community Hospital, “indicated that Keller personnel completed” the petition for seizure of his weapons to the state, according to the commission.
Staff at both hospitals recommended Card’s personal weapons be secured. Card wasn’t allowed access to military weapons while on duty, but Reamer has said he didn’t have the authority to seize Card’s personal weapons.
As the first anniversary of the shooting approaches, memorials to the victims still dot the landscape in Lewiston, including outside the bowling alley, which has reopened, and the restaurant, which remains closed.
Megan Vozzella, whose husband, Stephen M. Vozzella, was killed at Schemengees, said Tuesday that more needs to be done to make sure those involved are held accountable and to prevent future violence.
“People are crying out for help, and they’re not getting it and the result is that they harm innocent people in innocent communities,” Vozzella said. Her shoulder bears a tattoo with her husband’s name under a heart with wings and the words “In loving memory.”
As was her husband, Vozzella is a member of the area’s deaf community, and she spoke through an interpreter. Several people killed at the bar were playing in a cornhole league for the deaf community.
Shooting survivor Richard Morlock, who also spoke through an interpreter, said people who lived through the attack support one another, have fun together, and still play cornhole. But it’s difficult.
“I’ve lost some friends, hearing and deaf friends, and it’s a loss,” Morlock said. “It’s a terrible loss.”
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. Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.