PORTLAND, Maine — A survivor and relations of these killed within the deadliest mass taking pictures in Maine historical past went to Capitol Hill on Thursday to press for an inspector common to acquire solutions from the Army in regards to the psychological well being and hospitalization of a reservist who opened hearth.
Whereas representing assorted political beliefs, the households are united in searching for modifications to make sure that what occurred on Oct. 25 in Lewiston, Maine, doesn’t occur once more elsewhere.
“This has to cease. We predict we will cease it proper right here,” Leroy Walker, father of one of many victims, Joe Walker, instructed reporters in Washington. He was joined by his daughter-in-law, Tracey Walker, now a widow.
The group met privately with every member of Maine’s congressional delegation and, later, the White Home Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention. Two members additionally attended a vigil for gun violence victims at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church that included these affected by different mass shootings.
All instructed, 18 folks had been killed and 13 wounded when a 40-year-old Army reservist opened hearth on Oct. 25 at a bowling alley and at a bar. The gunman died by suicide.
Making the journey to Washington was Alan Nickerson, who survived being shot, together with the Walkers; Arthur Barnard and Kristy Strout, father and widow, respectively, of Arthur “Artie” Strout; and Elizabeth Seal, widow of Joshua Seal, considered one of 4 deaf folks killed.
The group wished to inform their tales and press members of Congress to make sure that the Army totally solutions questions in regards to the gunman.
The gunman, Robert Card, spent two weeks in a psychiatric hospital whereas coaching along with his reserve unit final summer season in West Level, New York, and his entry to navy weapons was restricted after he left the hospital. Fellow reservists continued to precise issues about him, with one writing “he’s going to snap and do a mass taking pictures.”
“If he was too harmful and posed a risk to these on the navy base, what obligations do the navy have to guard these locally the minute he stepped off the bottom?” mentioned Travis Brennan, an legal professional who accompanied the group.
Maine Sens. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an impartial, have already got requested the U.S. Army inspector common to offer a full accounting of interactions with the reservist. Thus far, there was no inspector common appointed, and the investigation has not but begun.
In Maine, an impartial fee can also be investigating all points of the shootings, and it’s searching for subpoena energy to query the Army as nicely.
Collins mentioned Thursday that the Army’s actions ought to have triggered both New York’s pink flag legislation or Maine’s yellow flag legislation, each of which might have resulted within the removing of Card’s weapons as a result of he “made threats and clearly posed a hazard to others and to himself.”
Each statutes enable weapons to be faraway from somebody in a psychological well being disaster, though there are variations between the 2 states’ legal guidelines.
“If it might’t be stopped right here, it might’t be stopped wherever. And that ought to fear all of us,” mentioned Ben Gideon, one other legal professional, noting that the Army chain of command knew about Card’s psychological well being issues and issues a couple of mass taking pictures.
Seal, who spoke via an American Signal Language interpreter, mentioned the tragedy revealed a number of issues, together with efficient communication with members of the deaf neighborhood who had been unable to get questions answered after the taking pictures.
Seal mentioned she was inspired by the conferences however wished to see motion. “Phrases are simply phrases. I wish to see them see it via,” she instructed reporters.
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