(20 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++SOUNDBITES SEPARATED BY WHITE FLASH++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lewiston, Maine – 20 August 2024
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Daniel Wathen, Lewiston Independent Commission Chair:
"None of us can begin to imagine the pain that you people have experienced on that terrible day, nor the hurt with which you continue to live."
++WHITE FLASH++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Daniel Wathen, Lewiston Independent Commission Chair:
"Robert Card is totally responsible for his own conduct. Solely responsible. He caused the deaths and injuries inflicted that night. We will never know if he might still have committed a mass shooting even if someone had managed to remove his firearms before October 25th. But the commission unanimously finds that there were several opportunities that, if taken, might have changed the course of these tragic events."
++WHITE FLASH++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Daniel Wathen, Lewiston Independent Commission Chair:
"The challenges faced by law enforcement in responding to the shootings were unprecedented in Maine. While many demonstrated bravery and professionalism in the face of danger, the first hours after the shootings were at times utter chaos as hundreds of law enforcement officers poured into Lewiston and were dispatched or self-dispatched to numerous scenes throughout the area."
++EDIT ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
Both the Army Reserves and local police missed out on opportunities to intervene in a gunman’s psychiatric crisis and seize weapons from the spiraling reservist responsible for the deadliest shootings in Maine history, according to the final report released Tuesday by a special commission created to investigate the attacks, which killed 18 people.
The independent commission, which held more than a dozen public meetings, heard from scores of witnesses and reviewed thousands of pages of evidence, cited shortcomings by police for failing to take the gunman’s weapons and by the Army Reserves for failing to provide proper care for the 40-year-old gunman, Robert Card.
The commission, created by Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, announced its conclusions at Lewiston City Hall, less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the two sites where the shootings took place Oct. 25, 2023.
The 215-page report reiterated the panel’s conclusion from an interim finding in March that law enforcement had authority under the state’s yellow flag law to seize the shooter’s guns and put him in protective custody weeks before the shootings. But it also said the Army Reserves also should have done more, as well, to ensure care and deal with the weapons.
Daniel Wathen, chair of the commission, started his remarks by acknowledging the victims. “None of us can begin to imagine the pain you people have experienced on that terrible day,” he said.
He said it’s impossible know if the tragedy would have happened if police and the Army had done a better job. He also said police did their best to respond to the tragedy but noted that there was “utter chaos” when hundreds of police officers poured into the region.
The commission began its work a month after the mass shooting by Card, an Army reservist who killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston and then took his own life. Over nine months, there has been emotional testimony from family members and survivors of the shooting, law enforcement officials and U.S. Army Reserves personnel, and others.
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