Heavily armed law enforcement personnel swarmed an area in Bowdoin, Maine, on Oct. 25 as a manhunt was underway for mass shooting suspect Robert Card. Newly released police video shows law enforcement’s concerns over his mental health prior to the killings of 18 people. File Photo by CJ Gunther/EPA-EFE
Dec. 23 (UPI) — A pair of police dashcam videos released this week reveal local authorities in Maine were aware of the threat posed by mass shooter Robert Card more than a month before he killed 18 people.
The two videos, published Friday by the Portland, Maine, Press Herald following a Freedom of Information Act request, depict law enforcement and Army Reserve officials discussing the deteriorating mental health of Card on Sept. 16, five weeks before he opened fire at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, on the night of Oct. 25.
A second video from later on Sept. 16 shows Sgt. Aaron Skolfield of the Sagadahoc County, Maine, Sheriff’s Office, trying to locate Card at the home of his father and inquiring about whether he was in possession of any weapons.
The videos illustrated how deeply local officials were worried about Card’s potential for violence and his access to firearms well before the shooting.
They come a week after an independent third-party review determined the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office acted “reasonably” in its dealings with Card prior to the incident amid concerns that not enough was done to stop him despite numerous warning signs.
Card, 40, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Oct. 27. Eighteen people died and 13 others were wounded during his rampage in Lewiston.
In one of the videos, Skolfield is heard in his sheriff’s car saying Card refused to answer his door during a visit to the home in Bowdoin, Maine, and speaking on the phone to the shooter’s Army Reserve unit supervisor, Capt. Jeremy Reamer.
During their conversation they agree that confronting Card at the home could be dangerous.
In the second the video, the sheriff’s sergeant is seen at the home of Robert Card Sr., . who answers the door and says he doesn’t know whether anyone has taken his son’s guns.
The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office commissioned the independent review of their dealings with Card after acknowledging after the shooting they had twice been warned of his mental health issues.
But, they contended, they were unable to do more because they were never able to physically confront him.
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