Law enforcement officials in Maine received a statewide alert about “veiled threats” made by US Army reservist Robert Card — weeks before he opened fire at a local bowling alley and a bar, killing 18 people and wounding 13 others.
Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry said he sent deputies to Card’s home in September after the US Army Reserve tipped him off that the firearms instructor had issued “veiled threats” against an Army base — but couldn’t find him.
Merry then sent an “awareness alert” about Card to all of the state’s law enforcement agencies.
Saco Police Chief Jack Clements said he even deployed cops to patrol the local Army base where Card, a veteran reservist, had trained — but also came up empty.
“We added extra patrols. We did that for about two weeks,” Clements said. “The guy never showed up.”
On Wednesday, Card stormed into Just-In-Time Recreation, a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, and opened fire with a high-powered rifle, then drove to Shemengees Bar & Grille and gunned down patrons there before fleeing.
The mass shootings sparked a massive manhunt by local, county, state and federal authorities, which ended on Friday when Card was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“He slipped through the cracks,” Indiana University law professor Jody Madeira told the Associated Press of Card. “There were warning signs.”
Despite the alerts sent by Merry, the FBI said Card was not on their radar before the shootings, and said the agency “was not provided with or in possession of any information that would have prohibited Card from a lawful firearm purchase.”
Card, 40, enlisted in 2002 and was a trained firearms expert who fellow reservists described as one of the best marksmen in his unit — and was a skilled hunter and outdoorsman.
But signs of trouble surfaced in July when officials at Camp Smith near the US military academy at West Point, New York, reported that Card was exhibiting bizarre behavior and made “threats to other members of his military unit” during a training exercise.
The base notified state police, and Card was committed to a mental health facility, where he spent two weeks.
Jonathan Crisp, a former Army attorney, said that had Card been committed involuntarily, that should have put him on the radar of law enforcement.
“If they took him and he didn’t want to go and he refused to be admitted, it’s a slam dunk,” Crisp said. “This should have been reported.”
But Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said Saturday that there was no evidence Card had been committed involuntarily, though he did have a mental health history.
Card was allowed to go home — still in possession of the assault rifle.
Clements, the Saco chief, said his department gets many alerts like the one sent out about Card and did their due diligence — but did not have any specific warnings about the reservist beyond that.
“Never came in contact with this guy, never received any phone calls from the reserve saying, ‘Hey, we got somebody who was causing a problem,'” he said. “We never got anything.”
The New York State Police declined to comment to the AP, citing an ongoing investigation.
With Post wires