Survivors of Maine’s deadliest mass taking pictures and kin of victims are suing the federal authorities, alleging that the U.S. Army might and will have stopped certainly one of its reservists from finishing up what they name “one of the preventable mass tragedies in American historical past.”
Eighteen folks have been killed in October 2023 when Robert Card opened fireplace at a bowling alley and a bar and grill. An impartial fee appointed by Maine’s governor later concluded that there have been quite a few alternatives for intervention by each Army officers and civilian legislation enforcement as Card’s psychological well being deteriorated. He was discovered useless by suicide two days after the shootings.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court docket on behalf of greater than 100 survivors and victims’ relations, accuses the U.S. authorities of negligence, saying its conduct “immediately and proximately prompted the mass taking pictures.” It alleges that Army officers and others “didn’t act fairly, broke the guarantees they made to Card’s household and their neighborhood, violated necessary polices, procedures and disregarded directives and orders.”
“By March 2023, the USA and its personnel knew Card was paranoid, delusional, violent, and lacked impulse management. The Army knew he had entry to firearms. The Army promised to take away his weapons however didn’t fulfill that promise,” the lawsuit states. “Worse, via its acts and omissions, the Army withheld data and actively misled native legislation enforcement, thereby stopping others from intervening and separating Card from his weapons.”
Attorneys plan to supply extra particulars Wednesday at a information convention in Lewiston, not removed from the place the shootings came about.
Spokespeople for the Division of Protection and the Army stated they’d not touch upon pending litigation. A request for remark was emailed to the Keller Army Group Hospital.
The attorneys started the method of suing the federal government rather less than a 12 months in the past once they filed notices of declare, saying the Army didn’t act regardless of being conscious of Card’s psychological well being decline. Card’s psychological well being spiral led to his hospitalization and left him paranoid, delusional and expressing homicidal ideations, the declare stated. He even produced a “hit record” of these he needed to assault, attorneys have stated.
Members of the family and fellow reservists stated Card had exhibited delusional and paranoid conduct months earlier than the shootings. He was hospitalized by the Army throughout coaching in July 2023 in New York, the place his unit was coaching West Level cadets, however Army Reserve officers have acknowledged that nobody made positive Card was taking his treatment or complying along with his follow-up care at dwelling in Bowdoin, Maine.
The starkest warning got here in a September textual content from a fellow reservist: “I imagine he’s going to snap and do a mass taking pictures.”
“From the beginning, the Army disregarded its necessary insurance policies and procedures, and laws when coping with Card,” the lawsuit states. “Regardless of the intense points Card introduced on the firm or battalion stage, they weren’t reported up the chain of command to senior army officers with the data, expertise, and assets to handle them. As an alternative, low-ranking, part-time personnel mis-managed the dangers, leading to disastrous penalties.”
Army officers performed their very own investigation after the shootings that Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, then the chief of the Army Reserve, stated discovered “a collection of failures by unit management.” Three Army Reserve leaders have been disciplined for dereliction of obligation, in response to the report. When the governor’s fee launched its ultimate report final August, the Army issued a press release saying it was “dedicated to reviewing the findings and implementing sound adjustments to forestall tragedies like this from recurring.”
The Lewiston shootings led to new weapons legal guidelines in Maine, a state with a protracted custom of looking and gun possession. The legal guidelines prompted authorized motion on the a part of gun rights advocates within the state and stay a contentious matter practically two years after the shootings.
Story Continues
© Copyright 2025 Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials might not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
