Robert R. Card II, 40, of Bowdoin, who spent about two decades in the Army Reserve, went on a rampage the night of Oct. 25, killing 18 people and wounding 13 others at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, and Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant in Lewiston.
For nearly two days, thousands stayed in their homes as law enforcement searched for Card; his body was found at a recycling center in Lisbon. Authorities later determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Card experienced a rapid decline in his mental health that began about a year before the shooting. His family, friends, and colleagues grew worried about his increasingly erratic behavior, anger, and paranoia.
In May 2023, Card’s teenage son and ex-wife alerted local police about Card, his anger about being called a pedophile, and that he had just picked up as many as 15 guns from his brother’s house. The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office passed along the warnings to Card’s Reserve unit, based in Saco, but did not make contact with him.
The following July, Card traveled to New York to join his unit to help train West Point cadets. Shortly after he arrived, he complained people were talking about him, and he tried to fight an Army colleague. Card’s commander, Captain Jeremy Reamer, ordered him to undergo an evaluation by a specialist at the Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point; an Army psychiatric nurse determined that Card showed signs of psychosis and paranoia and was unfit for duty.
The Army nurse recommended Card go to a civilian facility for a “higher level of care,” and Card went to the Four Winds psychiatric hospital in Katonah. While at Four Winds, Card showed symptoms of psychosis and “homicidal ideations” and told staff he had a “hit list,” according to an Army Reserve report on the shooting released last month.
Staff tried to have him involuntarily committed by a state court, but instead, Card’s Aug. 2, 2023, court date was canceled and he walked out of the facility the following day, according to the Reserve.
Staff at both the Army and civilian hospitals recommended that Card’s personal weapons be secured. Card wasn’t allowed access to military weapons while on duty, but Reamer has said he didn’t have the authority to seize Card’s personal weapons.
According to the Reserve’s report, administrative action has been taken against three officers in Card’s unit, though the report did not name them. The Reserve said Card’s chain of command failed to follow procedures, including related to his care after leaving Four Winds.
Despite warnings to police in Maine and New York and the Army Reserve, Card’s weapons were never secured by authorities, according to investigative reports released by the US Army Reserve last month and an interim report in March from the state commission.
Card was a grenade instructor in the Reserve. Researchers at Boston University who examined his brain tissue following the shooting found evidence of traumatic injury that could have been caused by blast injury. That brain damage could have also contributed to Card’s symptoms, according to the researchers.
The seven-member state commission was assembled by Governor Janet Mills just days after the shooting. Some of those affected directly by the massacre have told the Globe they want a full accounting of what went wrong, who bore responsibility for those failures, and a plan to prevent a future mass shooting.
“Too many people [were] passing the buck, and you got 18 people dead,” said Bobbi Nichols, who survived the gunfire at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, where her sister was killed. “I want to see transparency, I want to see accountability, I want to see something done so this doesn’t happen again.”
As the first anniversary of the shooting approaches, memorials to the victims still dot the landscape in Lewiston, including outside the bowling alley, which has reopened, and the restaurant, which remains closed.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com. Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.
