Maine gunman Robert Card threatened New Hampshire bakery workers and told them he would “get it” as he delivered bread six days before slaughtering 18 people

Maine gunman Robert Card threatened workers at a New Hampshire bakery and told them he would “hit,” just days before he slaughtered 18 people.

Six days before Card opened fire in the city of Lewiston, he told workers at Country Kitchen Bakery Outlet, “Maybe you’re the ones I’m addressing.”

The Portland Press Herald reported that an unnamed employee told officers that Card had been delivering to the bakery for the past six months.

The outlet reported that employees only reported the incident to police after seeing images of him on the news, when a manhunt was underway.

Card killed 18 people and injured 13 others at a bowling alley and bar on Oct. 25, in the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history.

This new development comes after victims and their families signaled their intention to file a lawsuit after officials missed red flags about Card.

Earlier this week, it was also announced that Governor Janet Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey have established an independent panel to investigate the shooting.

“As we have said, the full facts and circumstances – including any errors or omissions – must be exposed and known to all,” Mills and Frey said in a statement.

“The families of the victims, those who were injured, and the people of Maine and the nation deserve nothing less,” she added.

The independent panel was instructed Thursday by the governor and attorney general to “follow the facts wherever they may lead.”

Members include former judges, prosecutors and mental health professionals, while lawyers are also urging victims’ families to seek legal justice.

Attorney Travis Brennan of Berman & Simmons, a Lewiston law firm, said, “The Lewiston community, especially the victims and their families, have many unanswered questions.

‘Why did this happen? How did the system fail? What changes are needed to ensure this never happens again?’

The company sent letters to at least 20 agencies, directing them to “preserve all documents and information that may be relevant to the civil personal injury lawsuits of victims of the Lewiston mass shooting.”

Some of the agencies include the US Army Reserve, the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office and Four Winds Hospital in New York.

In the aftermath of the attack, text messages revealed the extent to which Maine police were alerted to mass shooter Card by his fellow service members in the Army Reserves, who reported their fears six weeks before the attack that killed 18 people.

In September, Army reservists were so concerned that Card was about to kill that they told each other to “change the passcode” for the entrance gate to their base in Saco, and warned each other to be armed in his presence.

“Change the unit gate access code and be armed when Sergeant First Class Card arrives. Please. I think he’s confused in his head.

He added: “He dropped it off and was worried his guns were still in the car… He still has all his guns.”

In another, he said, “I think he’s going to shoot and do a mass shooting.”

The sergeant reported his fears to a supervisor, who then notified sheriff’s deputies with the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office.

But all that was done to stop Card was a File 6 alert, sent to police forces across the state, which was largely ignored.

Officers went to his house twice to try to talk to him but were unsuccessful and on October 18, exactly a week before the massacre, the File 6 alert was cancelled.

It described him as ‘armed and dangerous’ and told police to be cautious if they encountered him.

Maine State Police have put the tragedy behind them and say they are not responsible for the alert or responded to it.

An Androscoggin County sheriff’s deputy last month labeled Maine State Police “complete clowns” for their response to the mass shooting.

Now the families of some of those killed are demanding answers about why police didn’t do more to stop Card when they had the chance.

‘He should never have been allowed to walk free, he had made threats and threats. They can’t wash it away and say we did everything we could do,” Leroy Walker, whose son was among those killed, told CBS.

The 40-year-old killed himself after slaughtering 18 at the Lewiston bowling alley and bar. Two days after the ordeal, he was found dead, having committed suicide.

Card was from Bowdoin, Maine — a town of just over 3,000 residents — and a “highly skilled” Army “petroleum supply specialist” who enlisted in December 2002. He had no combat missions.

He was a sergeant 1st class and received the Army Achievement Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon and two Army Reserve Component Achievement medals.

The deadliest shooting in Maine history has stunned a state of 1.3 million that has seen relatively few violent crimes and only 29 homicides in all of 2022.

The Lewiston shootings were the 36th mass killing in the U.S. this year, according to a database maintained by AP and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

The database contains every mass murder since 2006 of all weapons that killed four or more people, not including the perpetrator, within a 24-hour period.