Army criticizes officers after Maine gunman Robert Card killed 18

Card’s part-time military career has been the subject of intense scrutiny since it emerged in the days after the massacre that a soldier in his unit had warned local authorities weeks earlier that Card “might blow up and commit a mass shooting.” Card had told family and friends that he had heard voices mocking him, and at the behest of the Army, he was briefly admitted to a psychiatric facility in the months before the massacre.

The Army investigation examined Card’s medical history and behavior before the killings to determine whether his military supervisors missed opportunities to prevent the tragedy. Leaders in his chain of command, who have not been publicly identified, had a duty to report his threats of violence internally but failed to do so, according to a report detailing the investigation. They also failed to understand their authority to collect protected medical information or military regulations that allow them to ask soldiers to store or secure privately owned weapons.

The Army report goes no further than to consider Card’s motive or whether investigators believe his military job, which included work at a grenade range, contributed to his mental decline. A separate study of his brain concluded that traumatic injuries “probably played a role” in his behavioral changes, and his family has said Card was likely exposed to thousands of low-intensity blasts.

Lt. Gen. Jody J. Daniels, the chief of the Army Reserve, told reporters at a briefing that Card’s exposure to blasts was “relatively minor,” but he left it up to health experts to make further determinations about how they may have affected Card’s condition.

Card showed warning signs months before the shooting that his military supervisors failed to address, the investigation found. In May 2023, for example, family members alerted the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office to Card’s mental health condition and his access to weapons. Authorities passed that information on to Card’s military commanders, but they did not immediately discuss the issue with him as they should have, the investigation found.

In July 2023, during a two-week training period for his reserve job, Card showed signs of stress and was sent to an Army hospital, the investigation said. Medical staff there referred him to a civilian psychiatric facility for higher-level care.

Card spent 19 days at Four Winds Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Katonah, N.Y. A doctor’s notes from the time indicate that Card said he had a “kill list” and talked about killing people, the Army investigation found. Nevertheless, the Four Winds medical team deemed Card a “very low risk” of harming himself or others and released him in August without consulting his military commanders, investigators found.

The hospital’s discharge decision was made under “questionable circumstances,” the Army investigation concluded. Daniels told reporters that someone at the facility canceled a trial to hear whether Card should be involuntarily committed.

And while the military had restricted Card’s access to military-grade weapons, they couldn’t force him to surrender his weapons “unless there was a medical determination,” Daniels said. That became irrelevant when Four Winds determined he didn’t pose a risk and released him, she said.

The hospital, located north of New York in Westchester County, did not respond to messages seeking comment. The Army report said the facility did not make anyone available to speak with investigators and that the Army had no authority to compel participation.

Army investigators found “multiple communication failures” both between the military and civilian hospitals that treated Card and with his chain of command — failures that directly impacted his “continuity of care,” the Army report said.

The investigation found that the Army was slow to circulate Card’s discharge papers at Four Winds, leaving his immediate supervisors unaware of the extent of his mental health problems, including his homicidal thoughts and resistance to treatment, the investigation found.

Daniels told reporters that military officials should have launched an investigation while Card was in the hospital or shortly afterward to determine whether his condition was related to his service.

One challenge unique to members of the military reserve, Daniels said, is that they spend very little time — about 38 days a year — in uniform, and commanders have limited authority to require medical care or dictate how reservists store their personal weapons. But “that doesn’t stop us from calling our soldiers and taking care of them and checking in on them,” she said.

There were other times when military leaders and law enforcement could have intervened, the report said. In September, weeks before the shooting, Card attacked his best friend, a fellow reservist. The friend texted another member of their unit, urging him to change the access code to a base gate and advising other soldiers to be armed if they saw Card.

That, too, was reported to the local sheriff’s office, but a person within the unit who spoke to authorities downplayed the threat Card posed, the investigation found. The Army report also does not identify that enlisted man.

Local authorities visited Card’s home days later, and although he was home, they did not attempt a meaningful welfare check, the report said. The sheriff’s office also did not attempt to enforce a Maine law that allows a judge to temporarily revoke guns from someone in a mental health crisis.

If law enforcement had been more proactive, “the mass shooting and suicide may have been prevented,” the report concluded.

The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An independent investigation requested by the sheriff’s office concluded that the officers “acted reasonably” and that, despite growing concerns from fellow soldiers and family, they did not have the authority to enter Card’s home or confiscate his weapons during that visit.