Connect with us

Maine

Fellow reservist warned of mass shooting before gunman's attack in Maine

Published

on

Fellow reservist warned of mass shooting before gunman's attack in Maine


Local News

An Army reservist and friend of the gunman behind Maine’s deadliest mass shooting testified Thursday about his friend’s mental decline, describing publicly for the first time the warning he issued a month before the tragedy unfolded.

Rain soaked memorials for those who died in a mass shooting sit along the roadside by Schemengees Bar & Grille, Oct. 30, 2023, in Lewiston, Maine. AP Photo/Matt York, File
Advertisement

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — An Army reservist and friend of the gunman behind Maine’s deadliest mass shooting testified Thursday about his friend’s mental decline, describing publicly for the first time the warning he issued a month before the tragedy unfolded.

Sean Hodgson texted leaders of his reserve unit six weeks before the shooting that left 18 people dead and 13 wounded, telling them to change the passcode to the gate at their Army Reserve training facility and arm themselves if Robert Card showed up.

Hodgson told a panel investigating the mass shooting on Thursday that he issued the warning to superiors after Card’s delusional and violent behavior spiraled and ended with Card punching him in the face.

“I said ‘Just so you know, I love you. I’ll always be there for you. I won’t give up on you.’ He had that blank stare on his face. It was a dead stare and he drove away,” Hodgson recounted as his friend left him at a gas station.

The attacks happened six months ago, on Oct. 25, when Card opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, two locations where he held a delusional belief that people were talking about him behind his back. Two days later, the 40-year-old Reservist was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Advertisement

Hodgson told superiors on Sept. 15: “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.”

But it wasn’t just Hodgson who was worried about Card. Several other reservists witnessed his deterioration during training last summer. That led to a two-week hospitalization in July for Card, months after relatives warned police he had grown paranoid and that they were concerned about his access to guns.

The failure of authorities to remove Card’s weapons in the weeks before the shooting has become the subject of a monthslong investigation in the state, which also has passed new gun safety laws since the tragedy.

In an interim report released last month, an independent commission launched by Gov. Janet Mills concluded that the Sagadahoc County sheriff’s office had probable cause under Maine’s “yellow flag” law to take Card into custody and seize his guns. It also criticized police for not following up with Hodgson about his warning text. A final report is expected this summer.

On Thursday, Hodgson said he warned of a mass shooting because Card threatened multiple members of the unit with violence and that his threats and delusions were escalating. And he had access to guns.

Advertisement

“The way he was behaving was very threatening. It was escalating. The totality of the circumstances, the events leading to that moment, I was pretty convinced he was going to cause harm,” he said.

Another reservist, Daryl Reed, testified he witnessed Card’s mental and physical decline firsthand, seeing a “normal guy” who successfully traded stocks and loved hunting and the outdoors become increasingly paranoid and believing others were calling him a pedophile.

Card also acquired a thermal scope with a laser range finder that he said cost $10,000, and he demonstrated how it could be used to detect animals, including at night, Reed said.

He added fellow reservists started to become concerned Card could become a danger to colleagues. They were surprised, several testified, when Card was released from a psychiatric hospital after only two weeks.

In an exclusive series of interviews in January, Hodgson told The Associated Press he met Card in the Army Reserve in 2006 and that they became close friends after both divorced their spouses around the same time. They lived together for about a month in 2022, and when Card was hospitalized in New York in July, Hodgson drove him back to Maine.

Advertisement

Growing increasingly worried about his friend’s mental health, Hodgson warned authorities after Card started “flipping out” after a night of gambling, pounding the steering wheel and nearly crashing multiple times. After ignoring his pleas to pull over, Card punched him in the face, Hodgson said.

“It took me a lot to report somebody I love,” he said. “But when the hair starts standing up on the back of your neck, you have to listen.”

Some officials downplayed Hodgson’s warning, suggesting he might have been drunk because of the late hour of his text. Army Reserve Capt. Jeremy Reamer, the commanding officer of the reserve unit, described him as “not the most credible of our soldiers” and said his message should be taken “with a grain of salt.”

Hodgson said he struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol addiction but said he wasn’t drinking that night and was awake because he works nights and was waiting for his boss to call.

“I grieve every day for the many lives that are lost for no reason and those that are still affected today,” he told the AP earlier this month.

Advertisement

Cara Cookson, director of victim services for the Maine Office of the Attorney General, also testified Thursday and described through tears the daunting task of responding to the enormity of the tragedy with a “patchwork of resources.”

On Thursday evening, the Maine Resiliency Center, which provides support to people affected by the killings, held a six-month commemoration event that drew several hundred people to a park in Lewiston.

The names of the 18 people who died were read aloud at the start of the ceremony, and there were 18 empty chairs, each with a candle and a blue heart, honoring the victims.

The governor also acknowledged the anniversary.

“Our hearts are still healing, and the road to healing is long, but we will continue to walk it together,” Mills said in a statement.

Advertisement





Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Maine

Rep. Tammy Schmersal-Burgess: Maine’s 72-hour waiting period violates the Constitution

Published

on

Rep. Tammy Schmersal-Burgess: Maine’s 72-hour waiting period violates the Constitution


Tammy Schmersal-Burgess

Article 1, Section 16 of the Maine Constitution states the following: “Every citizen has the right to keep and bear arms and this right shall never be questioned.”

Now read the second phrase of that Constitutional section again… “and this right shall never be questioned.”

I assert that Maine’s recent passage of a 72-hour waiting period to purchase a firearm is a clear violation of its constitutional law in that, “Shall never be questioned” is indeed being questioned. Further, it is a right delayed and therefore a right denied.

Advertisement

It does not matter what political party you subscribe to. The Constitution of Maine is a bipartisan document. It applies to all of us and it is up to all of us to protect it.

A violation of our rights as Maine citizens isn’t the only cancerous element about the new 72-hour waiting period, there is also a very dark economic side as well.

Maine is a very rural state largely comprised of small towns and villages. This makes traveling long distances a must for most shoppers. Out-of-staters are often dismayed by the length of time and distance that we will drive to make a purchase. We don’t mind; we’ve always done it.

If you live in a small town in Western Maine, for example, you regularly shop in Lewiston or Portland. Imagine now that you travel to Portland to shop. You find an item you want but are told that after you buy it, you’ll have to return in three days to pick it up. It is not likely then that you will do that. Time and travel are expensive.

Now imagine shoppers from the very rural areas of Aroostook County, where retailers are extremely limited. Their trips may include a night or two at a hotel.

Advertisement

Most gun stores are also sporting goods stores and count on the sale of items other than firearms to make a profit. The 72-hour waiting period is certain to have a very harsh effect on these retailers. Even now, Maine’s largest firearm dealer, Kittery Trading Post, has publicly stated that it is considering moving its operation to neighboring New Hampshire where no such law exists. Now consider how much that move will cost Maine in sales tax revenue. That number is staggering.

Let us face the naked and painful truth. The tragedy that befell Lewiston was horrible. It was and is an egregious affront to all Mainers and especially those hundreds of thousands of law-abiding gun owners — hunters, sportsmen and women across the state — but we cannot lose sight of the fact that this was not a gun problem. This was a problem of Maine mental health agencies, supervisors and law enforcement agencies on many levels that dropped the ball where this shooter was concerned.

It was not the gun and it was not Maine gun owners who bear the burden of this tragedy. Those who were responsible for not utilizing Maine’s existing “yellow flag” law and letting this man go unchecked bear that burden.

Still, Maine Democrats of the state Legislature decided that it was time for some “feel good” legislation and, without a thorough thought process, jerked a knee and passed new gun laws. There, now that ought to make us all feel better, right? No. They have opened up a can of economic woes on retailers across the state and simply delayed a right to the people of the state of Maine and, by doing so, stepped on the Maine Constitution to deny a right.

Tammy Schmersal-Burgess of Mexico represents state House District 77.

Advertisement


Use the form below to reset your password. When you’ve submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

« Previous

Advertisement
William LaRochelle: Trump: Dangerously amoral



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Maine

Par for the Course: Good golf in Maine and on TV

Published

on

Par for the Course: Good golf in Maine and on TV


The golf weather in this state becoming good, and so has the golf on TV. This weekend, it’s the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky.

Bill Kennedy, Golf Columnist

Because the 2024 golf season has gotten off so well, the PGA Championship shapes up as being an exciting tournament. If you are asking why and how the 2024 PGA season is going so well, it is because there have already been so many positive development.

While LIV Golf and the PGA have not yet merged, the disdain between the two sides seems to have subsided, which means that interaction of the two tours is at the very least acceptable. There are 16 LIV Tour players in the PGA, including big-name stars Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka. And while they may not be hoisting a few at the same bars, the players from the two tours are being respectable and civil to each other.

Advertisement

And why not? They’re all making big bucks. The PGA Tour probably would not admit it, but the LIV Tournament has gotten the PGA Tour to significantly raise its prize money amounts. Koepka has won four LIV Tour events at $4 million per championships. Rory McElroy captured the Wells Fargo title May 12 at Quail Hollow and won $3.6 million. Wells Fargo is a top PGA event, but it is not a major. Rory did convert the Wells Fargo title to a first-round 66 at Valhalla, despite the fact that news had broken that he and his wife are getting a divorce.

If you need more proof that the greenbacks are flowing in pro golf, get this.

All of the pros have endorsements and sponsorships, which range from what Tigers Woods gets at $60 million a year, to just thousands of dollars for rank-and-file professionals. All of them are doing extremely well financially. Pro golfers are not poor.

A case in point is the May 14 announcement that Matthew Fitzgerald has been hired by Arrcos as its “tour ambassador.” What he is being paid was not revealed. Rest assured, it is a substantial sum, at least by the standards of working-class folks. Fitzgerald played on championship European Ryder Cup teams and won a U.S. Open, so he is yet another pro golfer using his name to monetary advantage. Viktor Hovland, a 2023 PGA Tour star, and LPGA superstar Nelly Korda also are affiliated with Arrcos.

Objections to the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Tour have been toned down. Many Americans still think that the Saudis are using golf to gain financial and political influence in the United States. Historically, nations with political philosophies which oppose USA thinking have tried to find a way into the finances and government of our great nation. And a golf entree is a lot easier to deal with than war.

Advertisement

Golf is the consummate sport of nobility and sophistication. It also has been the venue during which some of the greatest business deals in the world have been made. It is a huge money sport on and off the course.

So, if money is the goal of a competitor, the PGA and LIV tours are the place for pro golfers to be. To a lesser extent, there are the Champions, LPGA and Korn Ferry tours, where big money is not available, but a good living can be made.

Saving the best for last, there is Scottie Scheffler. All he has done to become the No. 1-ranked player in the world is bring home four 2024 tournament crowns – RBC Heritage, Masters, The Players Championship, and the Arnold Palmer Invitational – which has been good for $15.7 million in prize money. Apparently, even a three-week layoff during which his first child was born did not result in golf rust, because on the PGA’s very first hole, he chipped in for an eagle.

Then came his adventure with Louisville police on Friday, when he was handcuffed and arrested for not following police orders. While police were investigating the death of a pedestrian who had been struck by a bus, Scheffler reportedly drove past a police officer, who yelled at Scheffler and then grabbed onto the car and held on until Scheffler stopped about 10 yards later.

Scheffler was booked at 7:29 a.m., about 2 1/2 hours before his updated tee time, as the fatality caused the start of Friday’s play to be delayed. He was released and returned to the course by 9:12 a.m.

Advertisement

It was a harrowing experience for anyone, much less a person attempting to win a major golf championship. Schauffler seemed to have put that in his rear-view mirror, because he recorded another good round of 5-under 66 and still in the mix at the PGA Championship.

If he stays hot during the PGA, despite distractions, everyone else might be playing for second place.

​​​​​​​* * * * *

The MaineGolf 2024 season is underway.

Men’s Playday action is May 24-25 at Fairlawn, while the Women’s Playday season continues May 21 at Dutch Elm and Lakewood. Today at Natanis Tomahawk, the annual Men’s Club Team Championship is being conducted.

Advertisement

​​​​​​​​​​* * * * *

This kicks off the 12th season of “Par For The Course.” Hopefully, it leads to a dry season of 2024. Hit ’em straight.

 

Bill Kennedy, a retired New Jersey golf writer and editor now residing on Thompson Lake in Otisfield, is in his 12th season as Sun Journal golf columnist.

Advertisement

Use the form below to reset your password. When you’ve submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

« Previous

Auto racing: Coastal 200 ups early-season pressure at Wiscasset Speedway

Next »

Advertisement
Playoff exit ends successful bridge year for Bruins



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Maine

Maine High School Baseball and Softball Scores – Friday May 17

Published

on

Maine High School Baseball and Softball Scores – Friday May 17


Here are the High School Baseball and Softball Scores for games played and reported throughout the State of Maine on Friday, May 17th.

Baseball

  • Bucksport 16 GSA 2
  • Camden Hills 2 Messalonskee 1
  • Central Aroostook 11 Southern Aroostook 1
  • Cony 10 Belfast 5
  • Ellsworth 12 John Bapst 2
  • Greenville 13 Central 1
  • Hall-Dale 13 Telstar 0
  • Hampden Academy 5 Bangor 4
  • Hermon 6 Nokomis 1
  • Hodgdon 13 Madawaska 3
  • Katahdin 9 Fort Fairfield 4
  • Lawrence 12 Winslow 1
  • Leavitt 8 Erskine Academy 0
  • Lincoln Academy 3 Gardiner 2
  • Mranacook 5 Mountain Valley 1
  • Mattanawcook Academy 5 Houlton 3
  • Medomak Valley 4 Morse 2
  • Mount Ararat 4 Brewer 2
  • Oak Hill 14 Madison 1
  • Oceanside 11 Waterville 4
  • Piscataquis 13 Central 1
  • Sacopee Valley 4 Old Orchard Beach 0
  • Saint Dominic 3 MCI 0
  • Schenck 20 Shead 1
  • Skowhegan 8 Mount Blue 2
  • Stearns 10 Lee Academy 0
  • Valley 3 Buckfield 2
  • Washburn 11 Ashland 3
  • Washington Academy 13 Sumner 0
  • Wells 5 Poland 1
  • Winthrop 13 Dirigo 0
  • Woodland 9 Calais 2

Softball

  • Biddeford 16 Bonny Eagle 6
  • Brewer 11 Mt. Ararat 1
  • Buckfield 3 Valley 0
  • Bucksport 18 GSA 1
  • Central Aroostook 10 Southern Aroostook 3
  • Cony 13 Belfast 10
  • Gardiner 5 Lincoln Academy 1
  • Gorham 14 Noble 1
  • Hall-Dale 19 Telstar 0
  • Hampden Academy 10 Bangor 4
  • Hodgdon 16 Madawaska 1
  • Katahdin 15 Fort Fairfield 0
  • Kennebunk 4 Westbook 3
  • Lawrence 14 Winslow 2
  • Leavitt 6 Erskine Academy 2
  • Madison 11 Oak Hill 6
  • Massabesic 4 Sanford 1
  • Mattanawcook Academy 8 Houlton 4
  • Medomak Valley 8 Morse 4
  • Messalonskee 3 Camden Hills 2
  • Nokomis 4 Hermon 3
  • North Yarmouth Academy 8 Freeport 2
  • Poland 7 Wells 2
  • Sacopee Valley 18 Old Orchard Beach 0
  • St. Dominic 17 MCI 5
  • Schenck 9 Shead 2
  • Skowhegan 16 Mt. Blue 1
  • Sumner 5 Washington Academy 4
  • Thornton Academy 11 Deering 2
  • Woodland 17 Calais 0

It’s time to nominate someone for the Week 5 High School Athlete of the Week, for performances May 13-18 . Please email your nomination to chris.popper@townsquaremedia.com, letting us know why the individual should be the Athlete of the Week. Please include stats, and make sure you indicate what school this individual attends, and what sport they’re playing! All nominations should be received by Sunday, May 19th. Voting for Week 5 will take place May 19th-23rd with the winner being announced on Friday, May 24th.

LOOK: Can You Recognize These Iconic ’70s Objects

Let’s take a walk down a very groovy memory lane and ponder some of the things that made life easy, fun and undeniably cool in the ’70s.

Gallery Credit: Stephen Lenz

Advertisement





Source link

Continue Reading

Trending