Son is home from Bates…he slept for about eight hours after he arrived, woke up to eat something, slept through the night and has been resting for most of the day. He and his girlfriend were at the bowling alley about a week and a half ago and he had mentioned to his friends that it would be a great place to go to.
He is shaken up, but seems to be processing well and is planning on heading back up to Lewiston tomorrow if he is up for it, but we are taking it hour by hour…
I think y’all know that my son was at the Route 91 shooting. Until people become single-issue voters on the OTHER side of the gun issue, nothing will change.
Also, holding elected representatives accountable to pass better legislation to help severely mentally ill people.
I’m sorry your son had to go through that. This has been terribly hard on me, and I know it’s worse for him.
I’m sorry he was in the area and is dealing with this.
Details of more red flags that were missed. Really, really upsetting.
https://www.cnn.com/maine-shooting-robert-card-investigation/index.html
This thread is explicitly about the Lewiston shooting. Other similar events should be elsewhere, or new threads.
This article is infuriating. So many red flags, so many people not doing their jobs.
The military base actually put more guards on duty in preparation for Card to fulfill his promise of shooting it up! This is insanity.
And his father and brother saying they’d secure his weapons but not following through? What is wrong with you?
No one involved took any of this seriously enough.
This goes beyond being alerted about a threat - they were punched in the face with it.
And eighteen people, including a fourteen year old boy, paid the price.
This continues to be absolutely inexcusable.
I see lawsuits coming and rightfully so. IMO, the family should be charged with aiding and abetting.
Yes, I agree, but I want to learn more facts before passing judgment on the family. Sounds bad at first glance, though.
I just got a prayer request from our church. A family that attends is going to be spending time with the shooter’s family today. I don’t know any more details, but that will be tough.
Good point to not make too many judgements based on initial news stories. Tis a sad situation no matter how you look at it, but it will take time for officials to sort through it all.
I just emailed the CNN reporter who is holding people’s feet to the fire. I doubt he’ll respond, but it’s worth a try. Our advocacy group is holding a press conference on November 8 at the State House in Augusta. Unfortunately, I’ll be in Texas, but I would love to publicize the event.
What did you ask/express in your email to the CNN reporter? What is the reporter saying/doing? Haven’t seen it yet.
Here’s his latest report: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/29/maine-shooting-robert-card-investigation/index.html
I told him about our advocacy group and that we’re holding a press conference next week. I mentioned that Maine has passed a law for Progressive Treatment Program, when people can be required to undergo counseling and treatment after being released from the hospital, but for some reason DHHS is not educating law enforcement about it. I said some of the same things I’ve posted here, about being sad that the shooter didn’t get the help he needed, because our son’s experience proves that seriously ill people CAN be stabilized. I told him if he wants to know more about the advocacy group, I can connect him with the woman who is heading it up.
I don’t have much hope that he will respond, because I never even hear back from LOCAL reporters who write mental health stories. But I will keep trying.
Did none of this qualify him under the yellow flag law? If not, what does it take to have guns removed from someone this mentally ill/unstable?
Maine police were warned that Robert Card would “snap and commit a mass shooting” less than six weeks before he allegedly went on his violent rampage, according to reports.
The Maine National Guard asked local police to conduct a welfare check on Card, an Army reservist, back in September after he made threats against his US army base, a law enforcement source told CNN.
The family of the gunman who killed 18 people last week in Maine contacted police with concerns about his mental health and access to guns more than five months before the massacre, according to their local sheriff.
In addition to his own relatives, law enforcement officials and government agencies also expressed anxiety about Robert Card and the possible risk he posed to others**,** long before police say Card gunned people down in a bowling alley and a bar Wednesday in Lewiston.
The concerns even extended to fears he would commit mass violence. In September, the local sheriff’s office received a letter saying that a soldier who served with Card in the Army Reserve believed that Card might “snap and commit a mass shooting.”
But even amid these repeated worries and warnings, law enforcement officials who just weeks before the shooting were tasked with checking on Card — a 40-year-old Army reservist from Bowdoin, Maine — were unable to find him, according to records made public Monday evening.
How horrible that warning signs did not result in prevention. What I do wonder though is how many of this kind of report happen. Based on one interview I read somewhere, the police get many of this kind of report (?)
Doesn’t it seem as if there is often some kind of warning? And that often police/FBI get reports, but then they can’t do anything (or so they claim)? Aren’t there often missteps of one kind or another along the way?
“ Fewer than 5% of violent acts are linked to mental illness, research shows, and predicting who might act violently is all but impossible.”
“About half of all mass shooters who killed four people or more in a public place since 1966 leaked their intent to others beforehand, according to the Violence Project. More than three-quarters purchased some or all of their weapons legally, according to the group.”