LEWISTON, Maine — After more than a dozen public meetings, dozens of witnesses and thousands of pages of evidence, a special commission was established to investigate the case. deadliest shooting in Maine history is prepared to publish its final report on Tuesday.
The independent commission began its work a month after the Oct. 25 mass shooting by an Army reservist that left 18 people dead at a bowling alley and a bar and grill in Lewiston. Over the course of nine months, the commission has heard emotional testimony from family members and survivors of the shooting, law enforcement officers and U.S. Army Reserve personnel, and others.
The commission created by Gov. Janet Mills will hold a news conference to release the full report at Lewiston City Hall, less than 3 miles from the two locations where the shootings took place.
It is unclear whether the report will contain surprises. An interim report released in March said law enforcement the shooter’s weapons were seized and placed him in protective custody weeks before the shooting.
The committee’s public hearings exposed the rapid police response to the shootings, but also the chaos that ensued during the massive search for the gunman. They also revealed missed opportunities to stop the shooter, 40-year-old Robert Card, an Army reservist whose mental health was deteriorating.
Card’s sister testified at a hearing and placed her hand on his military helmet as she spoke.
Kathleen Walker, whose husband Jason was killed when he rushed Card to stop him, also testifiedand said, “The system is broken and we cannot allow this to happen again.”
Family members and fellow reservists said Card had been displaying delusions and paranoid behavior for months before the shooting. He was admitted to the Army in July 2023 during training, but a commander acknowledged he failed to monitor compliance with aftercare.
The most serious warning came in September when a fellow reservist texted an Army supervisor saying, “I think he’s going to go crazy and commit a mass shooting.” Card was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a search following the shooting.
Army officials conducted their own investigation after the shooting, which Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, then chief of the Army Reserve, said found “a series of deficiencies by the unit leadership.” Three Army Reserve officers were disciplined for dereliction of duty, according to the reportin which communication problems within the command structure and between military and civilian hospitals were noted.
The Maine Legislature new weapons adopted laws for the state, which has a history of gun ownership, in the wake of the shootings. A three-day waiting period for gun purchases went into effect earlier this month.
The Lewiston Commission is chaired by Daniel Wathen, a former chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The seven-member commission also included two former federal prosecutors, two other former judges, a psychiatrist and supervisor at a psychiatric hospital, and the state’s former chief forensic psychologist.
