PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Police who declined to confront an Military reservist within the weeks earlier than he killed 18 people in Maine’s deadliest mass shooting feared that doing so would “throw a stick of dynamite on a pool of gasoline,” in accordance with video launched Friday by legislation enforcement.
The video, which was released to the Portland Press Herald after which despatched to The Related Press, paperwork a Sept. 16 name between Sagadoc County Sheriff’s Sgt. Aaron Skolfield and Military Reserve Capt. Jeremy Reamer. Skolfield was following up with Reamer in regards to the potential menace posed by Robert Card, 40, who carried out the Oct. 25 assaults at a bowling alley and a restaurant. He was discovered lifeless two days later of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Army officers alerted police in September that Card had been hospitalized in July after exhibiting erratic habits whereas coaching, that he nonetheless had entry to weapons and that he had threatened to “shoot up” an Military reserve heart in Saco, a metropolis in southern Maine. The sheriff’s division responded by briefly staking out the Saco facility and going to Card’s dwelling in Bowdoin for what Reamer described as a “welfare examine.”
“The one factor I might ask is in the event you might simply doc it,” Reamer mentioned. “Simply say, ’He was there, he was uncooperative. However we confirmed that he was alive and respiratory.′ After which we are able to go from there. That’s, from my finish right here, all we’re actually in search of.”
Skolfield talked about Maine’s yellow flag law, which can be utilized to take away weapons from doubtlessly harmful folks, after Reamer mentioned Card had refused medical remedy after his hospitalization.
“In order that, clearly, is a hurdle we’ve got to take care of. However on the similar time, we don’t wish to throw a stick of dynamite on a pool of gasoline, both — make issues worse,” he mentioned.
Reamer expressed comparable considerations. “I’m a cop myself,” he mentioned. “Clearly, I don’t need you guys to get damage or do something that may put you guys in a compromising place.”
Auburn Metropolis Councilor Leroy Walker, Sr., whose son Joseph Walker was killed within the shootings expressed frustration with police after seeing the video. Joseph Walker was the supervisor of Schemengees Bar & Grill, the place a part of the assault befell.
“I wish to know what we prepare these folks to do. Is it simply to ship mail? Or cease harmless folks which may be driving 11 miles (per hour) over the pace restrict?” Walker mentioned in a textual content message, noting that watching the video made him “sick.”
Within the video, Skolfield referred to the Playing cards as “an enormous household on this space,” and mentioned he didn’t wish to publicize that police have been visiting the house. He informed Reamer he would attain out to Card’s brother, Ryan, to make sure members of the family had taken Card’s weapons, and a second video exhibits an officer on the father’s dwelling. After Card’s father mentioned he hadn’t spoken with Ryan in a number of days, the officer mentioned he would strive once more later.
“I simply wished to ensure Robert doesn’t do something silly in any respect,” he mentioned.
A report launched final week by Sheriff Joel Merry made clear that native legislation enforcement knew months earlier than the assault that Card’s psychological well being was deteriorating. Police have been conscious of reviews that he was paranoid, listening to voices, experiencing psychotic episodes and probably coping with schizophrenia.
Merry and Lewiston metropolis officers declined to touch upon the discharge of the movies. However a former New York Police Division detective sergeant who reviewed them for The Related Press mentioned the occasions previous the capturing illustrate the issue in making use of Maine’s yellow flag legislation. Lax legal guidelines about eradicating weapons from harmful folks is an issue in quite a few states, mentioned Felipe Rodriquez, an adjunct professor at John Jay Faculty of Felony Justice in New York Metropolis.
“The legal guidelines are simply too convoluted and they’re working towards one another. That’s the largest downside we’ve got,” Rodriquez mentioned.
Dan Flannery, the director of the Begun Heart for Violence Prevention Analysis and Schooling at Case Western Reserve College, cautioned that solely a lot a few police investigation may be gleaned from a couple of minutes of video.
“There’s at all times context, there’s the difficulty of what’s the coaching and protocol inside the division,” Flannery mentioned. “Violent habits is sadly one of the vital tough issues to foretell.”
However attorneys for capturing victims’ households mentioned the footage helps a sample of police ignoring clear warning indicators about Card within the weeks previous to the capturing. One of many attorneys, Ben Gideon of Auburn, mentioned “watching that footage, realizing what occurred roughly six weeks later, is chilling and surreal.”
The attorneys mentioned they’re trying ahead to an impartial Military inspector common’s full accounting of the occasions main as much as the shootings. Among the data they’ve gathered up to now, together with the video launched Friday, is “extremely regarding,” mentioned Travis Brennan, one other legal professional for the households.
“It’s one instance of lots of system failures. There isn’t a query right here that that is a person who had overt warning indicators,” Brennan mentioned.
Along with the inspector common’s investigation, Gov. Janet Mills appointed an independent commission led by a former state chief justice to overview all facets of the tragedy.
The actions of authorities forward of and through mass shootings has come underneath growing scrutiny. Final yr, the Air Drive was ordered to pay greater than $230 million in damages to survivors and victims’ households for failing to flag a conviction that may have saved the gunman in a 2017 church shooting in Texas from legally shopping for the weapon he used within the assault.
After a gunman fatally shot 19 kids and two lecturers at a college in Uvalde, Texas, final yr, state lawmakers issued a scathing report faulting law enforcement at every level with failing “to prioritize saving harmless lives over their very own security.” A number of officers misplaced their jobs over the halting and haphazard response, and a state prosecutor is still considering whether or not to carry felony fees.
Ramer reported from Harmony, New Hampshire. Related Press writers Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington, Nick Perry in Meredith, New Hampshire, and Jake Bleiberg in Dallas contributed to this report.
