Police throughout Maine have been alerted simply final month to “veiled threats” by the U.S. Army reservist who would go on to hold out the worst mass taking pictures within the state’s historical past, one in every of a string of missed crimson flags that preceded the bloodbath.
Two native regulation enforcement chiefs informed The Related Press {that a} statewide consciousness alert was despatched in mid-September to be looking out for Robert Card after the firearms teacher made threats towards his base and fellow troopers. However after stepped-up patrols of the bottom and a go to to Card’s house – neither of which turned up any signal of him – they moved on.
“We added additional patrols, we did that for about two weeks. … The man by no means confirmed up,” mentioned Jack Clements, the police chief in Saco, house to the U.S. Army Reserve base the place Card educated.
Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry, whose jurisdiction consists of Card’s house in Bowdoin, mentioned the Army Reserve tipped his division in September to the reservist’s threats, and the sheriff despatched the notice alert to each regulation enforcement company within the state after his deputy got here again empty-handed from a welfare examine to Card’s house.
“We couldn’t find him,” Merry mentioned, including that he couldn’t recall if there was any follow-up as a result of “I don’t have any experiences in entrance of me.”
Navy officers declined to remark additional about Card, particularly whether or not the threats relayed to the sheriff in September have been new or the identical ones Card had made throughout an Army reserve coaching train close to West Level, New York, in July. That’s when police say Card was dedicated to a psychological well being facility for 2 weeks after performing erratically and “listening to voices and threats to shoot up” a navy base.
Authorities say the 40-year-old Card opened hearth with a high-powered rifle on a bowling alley after which a bar in Lewiston Wednesday evening, killing 18 individuals and wounding 13 extra. After an intensive two-day search that put the state on edge, Card was discovered useless Friday from a self-inflicted gunshot.
Regardless of the sooner threats, the FBI mentioned Saturday Card had not been on its radar, telling AP it “didn’t have nor did it obtain any suggestions or info regarding Robert Card.” The bureau added that its on the spot background examine system “was not supplied with or in possession of any info that will have prohibited Card from a lawful firearm buy.”
Card’s case stands as a obvious instance of missed crimson flags, with many unanswered questions on what the navy, police, psychological well being professionals and family might have carried out to forestall the bloodbath.
Whereas Maine doesn’t have a crimson flag regulation, it does have a extra restricted “ yellow-flag ” regulation that will nonetheless permit police to petition a choose to take an individual’s firearms away if a medical practitioner deems that particular person to be a risk.
For his half, Saco police Chief Clements defended his division’s response to the alert about Card, which he described as a “generic factor that got here out saying, hey, you realize, we’ve had some report that this man’s made some veiled threats.”
Clements famous that his division will get many such alerts and that his officers gave this one its due consideration, keeping track of the bottom for any signal of Card.
“By no means got here involved with this man, by no means obtained any telephone calls from the reserve heart saying, ‘Hey, we bought someone who was inflicting an issue,’” he mentioned. “We by no means bought something.”
One other regulation enforcement company that got here involved with Card was the New York State Police, which on July 16 was known as in West Level by commanders of the Army Reserve’s third Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment with considerations about Card’s erratic habits and “threats to different members of his navy unit” throughout a coaching train, in accordance with a State Police doc obtained by AP. State Police troopers took Card, a sergeant 1st class, to the Keller Army Neighborhood Hospital at West Level for what can be two weeks of psychological well being analysis.
What New York State Police did about Card’s threats is unclear. The company declined to remark to the AP on the case and didn’t reply to a request for experiences or doable body-camera footage of their interactions with Card.
“That is an lively investigation, and the New York State Police doesn’t touch upon lively investigations, nor investigations by which we aren’t the lead company,” it mentioned in an announcement Friday earlier than Card was discovered useless. A state police spokesman refused to remark Saturday.
Jonathan Crisp, a military lawyer for 20 years earlier than beginning a legal protection apply, mentioned when troopers are dedicated involuntarily to psychological well being services by others within the chain of command, it’s a “reportable” occasion below Army laws that triggers a requirement to alert others. A provost marshal enters the incident right into a navy database that places the FBI on discover so it could enter the title right into a background listing of individuals prevented from shopping for weapons.
“In the event that they took him and he didn’t need to go and he refused to be admitted, it’s a slam dunk,” Crisp mentioned. “This could have been reported.”
However Maine Division of Public Security Commissioner Michael Sauschuck mentioned in information convention Saturday that whereas Card had a historical past of psychological sickness, there was no proof that he had ever been involuntarily dedicated.
“Simply because there seems to be a psychological well being nexus to this situation, the overwhelming majority of individuals with psychological well being prognosis won’t ever damage anyone,” Sauschuck mentioned.
Jody Madeira, an Indiana College regulation professor who has studied gun legal guidelines, mentioned police in a single state can alert counterparts in one other state that somebody is a hazard, and the navy can do the identical with native police.
She mentioned somebody dropped the ball as a result of Card’s threats and medical analysis ought to have triggered a yellow flag seizure of his weapons when he returned house.
“He slipped via the cracks,” Madeira mentioned. “There have been warning indicators.”
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Condon and Mustian reported from New York. AP reporter Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine, and information researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed.
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