PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Police who declined to confront an Military reservist within the weeks earlier than he killed 18 individuals in Maine’s deadliest mass capturing feared that doing so would “throw a stick of dynamite on a pool of gasoline,” in accordance with video launched Friday by regulation enforcement.
The video, which was launched 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 concerning 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.
Navy 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 house in Bowdoin for what Reamer described as a “welfare test.”
“The one factor I might ask is should you may 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 searching for.”
Skolfield talked about Maine’s yellow flag regulation, which can be utilized to take away weapons from probably harmful individuals, after Reamer mentioned Card had refused medical therapy after his hospitalization.
“In order that, clearly, is a hurdle now we have to cope with. However on the identical time, we don’t need 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 harm or do something that will 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 came about.
“I wish to know what we practice these individuals to do. Is it simply to ship mail? Or cease harmless individuals that could 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 need to publicize that police had been visiting the house. He informed Reamer he would attain out to Card’s brother, Ryan, to make sure relations had taken Card’s weapons, and a second video reveals an officer on the father’s house. After Card’s father mentioned he hadn’t spoken with Ryan in a number of days, the officer mentioned he would attempt once more later.
“I simply wished to verify Robert doesn’t do something silly in any respect,” he mentioned.
A report launched final week by Sheriff Joel Merry made clear that native regulation enforcement knew months earlier than the assault that Card’s psychological well being was deteriorating. Police had 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 regulation. Lax legal guidelines about eradicating weapons from harmful individuals is an issue in quite a few states, mentioned Felipe Rodriquez, an adjunct professor at John Jay School of Legal Justice in New York Metropolis.
“The legal guidelines are simply too convoluted and they’re working towards one another. That’s the most important downside now we have,” Rodriquez mentioned.
Dan Flannery, the director of the Begun Middle for Violence Prevention Analysis and Training at Case Western Reserve College, cautioned that solely a lot a couple of police investigation may be gleaned from a couple of minutes of video.
“There may be at all times context, there may be the problem of what’s the coaching and protocol inside the division,” Flannery mentioned. “Violent habits is sadly some of the troublesome 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, understanding what occurred roughly six weeks later, is chilling and surreal.”
The attorneys mentioned they’re trying ahead to an impartial Military inspector normal’s full accounting of the occasions main as much as the shootings. A few of the info 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 is no such thing as a query right here that that is a person who had overt warning indicators,” Brennan mentioned.
Along with the inspector normal’s investigation, Gov. Janet Mills appointed an impartial fee led by a former state chief justice to assessment all elements of the tragedy.
The actions of authorities forward of and through mass shootings has come underneath rising 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 which may have saved the gunman in a 2017 church capturing in Texas from legally shopping for the weapon he used within the assault.
After a gunman fatally shot 19 youngsters and two academics at a college in Uvalde, Texas, final yr, state lawmakers issued a scathing report faulting regulation enforcement at each stage 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 continues to be contemplating whether or not to deliver 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.