This is what the Bangor Daily News said recently about the numerous missed warnings before the Oct. 25 shooting in Lewiston, Maine:
There are many specific things we don’t know about last month’s shooting in Lewiston. What we do, tragically, know is that the pattern is eerily, horrifyingly familiar.
It’s familiar because it happened in Parkland, Sutherland Springs, Orlando, Fort Hood and in many other communities that share the unwanted distinction of being the site of a mass shooting.
In previous cases, warning signs were missed. Men who were prohibited from having guns got them anyway. Men who needed mental health treatment either couldn’t or didn’t get it, or, it seems, that treatment was ineffective.
Every aspect of the Lewiston case must be fully examined and hard questions asked. Gov. Janet Mills recently announced her intent to create an independent commission to review the events leading up to the Oct. 25 shooting and the police response to it.
“The complete facts and circumstances, including any failures — must be brought to light and known by all,” Mills said in a press release. “The families of the victims, those who were injured, those who are recovering, and the people of Maine and the nation deserve nothing less.”
This review must be used to improve systems in Maine. But it also must be shared nationally with hope of preventing future mass shootings, preventing the grief that has overtaken Maine from shadowing another community.
Again, we only have an outline of the failures that led to last month’s massacre, an outline that changes multiple times a day as new details are learned and revealed. Filling in all the details is critical. But, from what we already know, it seems that many fixes can be made now. Some don’t need legislation or rule changes. Instead, they just need the sober understanding, which came to Maine last week, that standard operating procedures aren’t enough.
From news reports, it is clear that numerous people, including Robert R. Card II’s family and his supervisors and fellow soldiers in the Army Reserves, worried about Card’s mental health. This worry was compounded by his gun ownership and his military training. We learned that the U.S. military barred Card from handling weapons and live ammunition two months before last week’s shooting. After threatening fellow reservists during training at West Point in July, Card was involuntarily committed to a mental health facility in New York, the Boston Globe reported.
It appears that those reports weren’t always shared with or directed to the appropriate agencies. Or, when they were, they were not able to be acted upon with the urgency with — yes, it is in hindsight — that was warranted. They also did not stop Card from obtaining guns, although he was prevented from buying a silencer in August after he acknowledged his mental health treatment on a background check form.
Attention has and will continue to be focused on Maine’s relatively new yellow flag law. It was clear from the beginning that this law was not as strong as the red flag laws that many states have enacted. Maine lawmakers should quickly consider improvements, with the full involvement of the medical community, which has to do the hard work of evaluating people who are needed armed and considered dangerous.
Law enforcement agencies and others need to fully assess their information sharing protocols. A statewide bulletin about Card was shared by the Sagadahoc Sheriff’s Office in September, and officers twice tried to locate Card without success. The “attempt to locate” report was canceled a week before the shooting in Lewiston.
Documents released by the sheriff’s office show that multiple officers were in contact with members of Card’s family and personnel from the Army Reserve about Card’s deteriorating mental health and threats. They discussed ways to approach and help Card, and to secure his guns. They were fearful of upsetting him if they reacted too harshly.
Although details are continuing to emerge, it is clear that many failures at many levels contributed to the horrific events in Lewiston. Pinpointing those failures and identifying and implementing ways to solve them are essential.
