PORTLAND, Maine — The sheriff’s office investigating the man who would later commit Maine’s deadliest mass shooting had reason to take away his guns and take him into protective custody before the tragedy, an independent commission concluded in a report Friday.
The committee reviewed the events that led to Army Reservist Robert Card killing 18 people at a bowling alley and bar on Oct. 25, as well as the subsequent response.
The committee criticized Sgt. Aaron Skolfield, who responded to a report five weeks before the shooting that Card was suffering from some sort of mental health crisis after previously attacking a friend and threatening to shoot up the Saco Armory.
The commission ruled that Skolfield, of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office, should have realized he had probable cause to initiate a so-called “yellow flag” process, which allows a judge to temporarily remove a person’s weapons during a mental health crisis .
Maine State Police and the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to calls for comment.
Commission chairman Daniel Wathen said their work was not yet finished and the interim report was intended to provide policymakers and law enforcement agencies with the 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 the victims, their families and the people of Maine need and deserve,” Wathen said in a statement declaration.
Ben Gideon, an attorney representing the victims, said he felt the report focused heavily on the sheriff’s office’s actions while ignoring the broader issue of access to guns for potentially dangerous people in the state.
“I agree with the commission’s findings, as far as they go, and I think it’s a legitimate point that the Sagadahoc Sheriff’s Office could have done more to intervene,” he said. “I was a little disappointed that the committee didn’t do that. I can’t look more broadly at the problems that start as early as May.”
He also said he hoped the report would make the gunman’s health records available to victims and the public, which was not the case.
Led by a former chief justice of Maine’s highest court, the commission also included a former U.S. attorney and the state’s former chief forensic psychologist. It was put together by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey.
Beginning in November, seven sessions were held, listening to law enforcement officials, family members of survivors and victims, and members of the U.S. Army Reserve as they explored whether anything could have been done to prevent the tragedy and what changes should be made in the future applied.
Mills said the panel’s work is of “great importance to the people of Maine.” She said she would “carefully review” the report.
Card, who was found dead by suicide after a two-day search, was well known to police, and his family and fellow soldiers had raised flags about his behavior, deteriorating mental health and potential for violence before the shootings.
In May, family members alerted police that Card had become paranoid and raised concerns about his access to weapons. In July, Card was committed to a psychiatric unit for two weeks after pushing a fellow reservist and locking himself in a motel room. In August, the army banned him from handling weapons while on duty and declared him incapacitated. And in September, a fellow reservist texted an Army supervisor about his growing concerns about Card, saying, “I believe he is going to strike and commit a mass shooting.”
Law enforcement officials told committee members that Maine’s yellow flag law makes it difficult to remove guns from potentially dangerous people.
‘I couldn’t get him to come to the door. I can’t make him open the door,” Skolfield said of his visit to Card’s home for a welfare check in September. “If I had kicked the door in, it would have been a violation of the law.”
In later testimony, those involved in the search for Card in the aftermath of the shooting acknowledged possible missed opportunities to find him and end the search that left the community on lockdown and scared residents. Some of the most emotional testimonies came from family members who tearfully described scenes of blood, chaos and panic followed by unfathomable loss.
Rachael Sloat, who was engaged to shooting victim Peton Berwer Ross, told the committee her heart breaks every time their 2-year-old daughter asks for her father.
“Where are you?” she said. “Every politician, every member of law enforcement, every registered voter in the country – I want you to hear these words. ‘Where are you?’ Because my fellow Americans, where are you? We failed my little girl.”
The committee plans to schedule more meetings. Spokesman Kevin Kelley said a final report should be released this summer.
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LeBlanc reported from Boston and Perry reported from Meredith, New Hampshire.