Report: Law enforcement should have taken man into custody before he killed 18 in Maine

Law enforcement officers should have taken an Army reservist and his weapons into custody weeks before he carried out the worst mass shooting in Maine history, a report by an independent commission said Friday.

The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office had “sufficient probable cause” to take Robert Card Jr. into protective custody and take his firearms in September 2023 under Maine’s red flag law, according to an independent commission established by Gov. Janet Mills to investigate the shooting.

“Robert Card Jr. is solely responsible for his own conduct, and he may have committed a mass shooting even if the guns he possessed in September 2023 were removed from his house,” the report said. “Nevertheless, there were several opportunities that, if taken, may have changed the course of events.”

Sgt. Aaron Skolfield had responded to a report that card was suffering from a mental health crisis, had recently assaulted a friend and owned several firearms, the commission found. However, Skolfield failed to secure a yellow flag order, which allows a judge to temporarily remove somebody’s guns during a psychiatric health crisis.

On Oct. 25, the 40-year-old Army reservist opened fire at a bar and bowling alley in Lewiston, killing 18 people. Days later, after an intense search that kept residents across the city locked in their homes, authorities found Card dead of a gunshot wound.

The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.

Commission Chair Daniel Wathen said their work wasn’t finished and that the interim report was intended to provide policymakers and law enforcement with key information they had learned.

“Nothing we do can ever change what happened on that terrible day, but knowing the facts can help provide the answers that the victims, their families, and the people of Maine need and deserve,” Wathen said in a statement.

Ben Gideon, an attorney representing the victims, said he felt the report focused heavily on the actions of the sheriff’s office while ignoring the broader issue of access to guns by potentially dangerous people in the state. Elizabeth Seal, whose husband Joshua was killed in the shootings, said she felt the focus of the report was “narrow.”

“I’m in agreement with the committee’s findings as far as they go, and I do think it’s a legitimate point that the Sagadahoc Sheriff’s Office could have done more to intervene,” Gideon said. “I was a little disappointed that the committee didn’t take a wider view of the issues that start as far back as May.”

He also said he hoped the report would make the shooter’s health records available to victims and the public, which it did not.

Contributing: Associated Press