Lewiston Maine mass killer differs from past shooters because his mental illness was known

Maine Writer- Thinking about reports from past mass killings by those who were guilty of slaughters, one of the common responses from people who knew the murderers has been, "He was quiet." ((About 99 percent of the killers have been men.)  Well, that response is certainly not the experience expressed about the Lewiston Maine mass killer who was obviously exhibiting dangerous behaviors that were repeatedly documented. Moreover, all reports about the killer pointed directly to his expertise with fire arms and expressed concern about his easy access to many guns. So, Everyone feared the worst about Robert Card. No one stopped him.

Echo investigative report published in The Portland Press Herald: There are still many unknowns, but a harrowing question weighs heavy: Could one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history also have been the most preventable?

Everyone who knew the killer Robert Card was concerned about his behavior. His ex-wife and teenage son. His siblings, parents, and friends. Fellow members of an Army Reserve unit in Saco.

1. They knew he was having psychotic episodes 
2. And hearing voices
3. They knew he was making threats
4. And, those threats were getting more specific
5. They knew he had several guns 
6. And knew how to use them

Many spoke up.

Local police were alerted in May and again in September about his increasingly erratic behavior. 

In between those contacts, the killer Card spent two weeks at a New York psychiatric facility, at the urging of commanding officers.

The warning signs before Card shot and killed 18 people on October  25th in Lewiston were glaring and abundant, and still, he was not stopped before he carried out the worst massacre in Maine’s history and then took his own life. 

Sadly, the drip, drip, drip of information that has come out since the tragedy suggests Card’s mental health deteriorated rapidly early this year and may have coincided with or been triggered by a bad breakup and his first hearing aids.

But, significant gaps in the timeline remain – the biggest being from September 17, when a Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s deputy tried unsuccessfully to visit Card at his Bowdoin home, to October 25, when the shootings occurred.

Family members told police Card distanced himself from them in the month before the shootings and wasn’t responding to messages or visits to his home. They have so far declined to speak with Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram reporters or failed to return messages. If others encountered Card more recently, they haven’t come forward.

In the days since the tragedy, scrutiny has intensified over whether enough people took Card’s behavior and threats seriously and whether enough was done to intervene. 

Maine Governor Janet Mills acknowledged this on Wednesday when she launched an independent commission that will look into the shootings and police response that followed, as well as the months before.

“It is important to recognize that, from what we know thus far, on multiple occasions over the last 10 months, concerns about Mr. Card’s mental health and his behavior were brought to the attention of his Army National Reserve unit, as well as law enforcement agencies here in Maine and in New York,” Mills said. “This raises crucial questions about actions taken and what more could have been done to prevent this tragedy from occurring.”

The commission’s findings will be made public, but that could take many months, or more.

The following account of Card’s troubling descent into mental illness is built from court documents and other public records and interviews with those who knew Card or his family, some of whom spoke on the condition that they not be named publicly.

There are still many unknowns, but a harrowing question weighs heavy: Could one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history also have been the most preventable?

The earliest signs that Card’s mental health was worsening date back to the beginning of 2023.

His ex-wife and 18-year-old son raised concerns in May with the school resource officer at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham, where Card’s son was a senior. 

At that time, the officer contacted the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office – responsible for Bowdoin, where Card lived his entire life – which sent Deputy Chad Carleton to investigate.

According to Carleton’s report, Card’s son started worrying about his father’s behavior in January. They would be out in public places together, and the older Card insisted that people were talking about him and saying derogatory things, including that he was a pedophile.

The son told Deputy Carleton that he stopped visiting his father sometime in April and that his father was upset about that. 

Card’s ex-wife said she was worried about their son spending time with him and told the deputy that Card had recently picked up as many as 15 guns from his brother’s house.

Card’s ex-wife and son told the deputy they didn’t want Card to know that they had come forward “for fear that it would aggravate the situation.” Instead, they would keep their distance.

Carleton said he would reach out to Card’s commanding officer in the Army Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment, which is headquartered in Saco and includes many Maine law enforcement officers among its 70 members. Card had been a member of the part-time unit for many years.

The ex-wife said she would contact Card’s sister-in-law, who is a nurse.

Carleton spoke with Card’s supervisor, Kelvin Mote, a corporal with the Ellsworth Police Department. Mote told him members of the unit already were concerned and said Card recently had been accusing other soldiers of calling him a sex offender. It’s not clear why Card was fixated on that notion, but Maine’s sex offender registry does list a different Robert Card. Immediately after police released Card’s name, some people assumed it was that Card, who is one year younger and lives in Waterville.

Mote told Carleton he would consult with the unit’s commander, Jeremy Reamer (a police officer in Nashua, New Hampshire), about getting Card help.

The sheriff’s deputy then spoke with Ryan Card, the shooter’s brother, who was not aware that Robert had come to his house to retrieve his guns. He told Carleton that his brother’s behavior seemed to shift shortly after he was fitted for hearing aids in February.

Some other family members knew his mental health was declining but felt their efforts to help him were fruitless, because he was in denial, Carleton wrote in his report.

There are some links between hearing loss and mental illness, but it’s not known if they apply to Card. It is also unusual for a 40-year-old to suddenly exhibit first-time paranoid behavior.

Carleton asked Ryan Card if he wanted a deputy to accompany him when he next spoke to his brother. But Card’s brother, like his ex-wife, feared police involvement would make things worse.

That same night, Ryan and a sister, Nicole, went to visit Robert at his trailer. He answered his door holding a gun but talked with his siblings at length and agreed to go see a doctor about the voices he was hearing.

Finally, Carleton called Mote again, who told him supervisors in the Army unit would “sit down with (Card) in the near future to see if they could get him to open up about what has been going on.”

Neither Mote nor Reamer responded to multiple messages last week asking them to discuss any actions they had taken.