AUGUSTA, Maine – An independent commission investigating events leading up to the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history is ready to hear the heart-wrenching stories from some of the family members of victims on Thursday.
Seven family members were expected to publicly address the panel, putting a human face on their sorrow and suffering.
The shootings happened Oct. 25 when an Army reservist opened fire with an assault rifle at a bowling alley and at a bar that was hosting a cornhole tournament in Lewiston. Eighteen people were killed and 13 injured.
The speakers were expected to include survivors Kathleen Walker and Stacy Cyr, who lost their partners, childhood friends Jason Walker and Michael Deslauriers, who charged at the gunman; Elizabeth Seal, who is caring for four children after the death of her husband, Joshua; and Megan Vozzella, whose husband, Steve, died two weeks shy of their one-year anniversary.
Advertisement
The commission was established by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and state Attorney General Aaron Frey to review events leading up to the tragedy to establish the facts that can inform policies and procedures to avoid future tragedies.
The gunman, Robert Card, 40, was experiencing a mental health breakdown before the shooting, and police were aware of his deteriorating mental health.
His son and ex-wife told police in May that Card was becoming paranoid and hearing voices, and a fellow reservist explicitly warned in September that he was going to commit a mass killing. In between, Card was hospitalized for two weeks for erratic behavior while his Maine-based Army Reserve unit was training in West Point, New York.
More than a month before the shootings, police went to Card’s home for a face-to-face assessment required under the state’s yellow flag law, which allows a judge to order the removal of guns from someone who is experiencing a psychiatric emergency. But Card refused to answer the door, and police said they couldn’t legally force the issue.
Tens of thousands of residents in Lewiston and neighboring communities were under a lockdown order after the shootings. Card’s body was found two days later. The medical examiner ruled that he died by suicide.
Advertisement
The governor isn’t waiting for the commission to wrap up its work to begin making policy changes to prevent such tragedies in the future.
This week she proposed allowing police to petition a judge to start the process of removing weapons from someone in a psychiatric crisis — skipping the face-to-face meeting — along with boosting background checks for private gun sales and bolstering mental crisis care.
The commission is chaired by Daniel Wathen, former chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Other members include former U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby and Debra Baeder, the former chief forensic psychologist for the state.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
In this June 29, 2014, file photo, former Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank, right, waves while riding with his husband James Ready, left, during the 44th annual San Francisco Gay Pride parade in San Francisco. (Eric Risberg/Associated Press)
Barney Frank, a champion of liberal causes who spent more than 30 years representing Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives, has entered hospice care at his home in Ogunquit as he deals with congestive heart failure, according to Politico.
Frank, 86, represented Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District from 1981 to 2013, and was the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay, in 1987.
An advocate for civil rights and affordable housing, Frank is also known for sponsoring sweeping financial regulation reforms in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010.
Advertisement
He moved to Ogunquit with his husband, Jim Ready, after retiring from Congress.
According to Politico, Frank is supporting Gov. Janet Mills over political newcomer Graham Platner in Maine’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
“I worry a little bit about the tendency on the Democratic side to fall for the flavor of the month,” he told the outlet. “There is this flirtation or this attraction of people who are new and who are very good at articulating a response to the anger, but without talking about what you do about it.”
Advertisement
Rachel covers state government and politics for the Portland Press Herald. It’s her third beat at the paper after stints covering City Hall and education. Prior to her arrival at the Press Herald in…
More by Rachel Ohm
Housing This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
Halting property taxes, deterring migrants and dedicating $100 million to fund construction are among the ideas Maine’s gubernatorial candidates have to improve the state’s housing market.
Most of the 16 people vying to be Maine’s next governor agree the state’s housing market is suffering due to high prices, limited availability and slow construction. But their plans for how they’d immediately improve that if elected vary drastically.
Advertisement
Many candidates’ ideas centered around the same general themes: build more units and hasten construction. Doing this, they believe, will lower prices and make it easier for Mainers to buy a home.
The state’s tight housing market has been a burden on many Mainers — and a focal point for voters — since the pandemic, during which home prices skyrocketed due to a rush of demand while inventory plummeted. Since then, more homes have become available but prices remain high, which keeps homeownership out of reach for many, especially first-time buyers.
Roughly a dozen candidates agreed local and state permitting processes and regulations should be reformed to speed up the building process and allow more projects to be approved. A statewide study completed in 2023 found the state has a dramatic housing shortage due to years of underproduction, which will take at least 76,400 new units by 2030 to solve.
Three Republican candidates — Ben Midgley, Owen McCarthy and Bobby Charles — proposed addressing “red tape” that’s holding back development as part of their plan. Two others, Republican Jonathan Bush and independent Richard Bennett, want to perform statewide audits to identify where and why housing development projects are stalling.
Democrat Hannah Pingree proposed directing $100 million in state funding annually to fuel construction and preserve existing affordable units.
Advertisement
Both Angus King III, a Democrat, and John Glowa, an independent, outlined plans to build 10,000 new units, which King wants to complete by the end of his first term. However, King believes the 10,000 new units should span income levels while Glowa wants all the units to be low income rental housing.
Two other candidates, democrat Troy Jackon and republican Robert Wessels, described groups they plan to form with the explicit goal of improving housing in Maine. Jackson’s Department of Housing Affordability would be tasked with “tackling the housing crisis with the speed, scale, and focus working families deserve.”
Wessels’ team, meanwhile, would “dig into our housing regulations and figure out what ones we need to keep.” Regulations the group deems unnecessary would be repealed or altered to “allow our homebuilders to do their job.”
A few candidates offered entirely unique ideas, such as Democrat Shenna Bellows, who proposed freezing property taxes for Mainers while doubling those for out-of-state owners.
Republican David Jones, meanwhile, said he wants to make housing and other welfare programs accessible to U.S. citizens only, thus deterring “migration from foreign nations to Maine.”
Advertisement
Find the answer each gubernatorial candidate provided below when asked the first thing they would do to improve the state’s housing market if sworn in. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order.
Republican primary candidate for Maine Governor Jonathan Bush during a news conference in Welcome Center of Maine State House in Augusta on March 17.
(Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)
Candidates vying to become Maine’s next governor have until midnight Tuesday to file campaign finance reports for the first quarter of the year.
The reports will show who is best positioned to control the message in the final month-plus until the primaries. But fundraising success doesn’t always guarantee a win at the ballot box.
The reports come as a growing number of leading candidates are taking to the airwaves a head of the June 9 primaries. Five Democrats and seven Republicans are vying to replace Gov. Janet Mills, who is term limited.
Advertisement
As of Tuesday, Republican Jonathan Bush topped all candidates in broadcast, cable and digital advertising, having booked nearly $1.5 million in ads through the primary, the political spending tracker AdImpact said.
But Republican Garrett Mason is benefitting from about $3 million in spending by Restoration of America PAC, which is running ads targeting Gov. Janet Mills and tying Mason to President Donald Trump.
Other Republican candidates running ads are Bobby Charles ($63,000), Owen McCarthy ($43,660) and Ben Midgely ($55,000.)
Hannah Pingree tops the Democratic slate with about $564,000 in ad spending, followed by Nirav Shah ($493,000), Shenna Bellows ($462,700) and Angus King III ($299,000.)
As of Tuesday afternoon, fundraising totals were only trickling in. Public access to those reports was hampered because the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics & Election Practices is building a new website, and glitches made some reports unviewable.
Advertisement
This story will be updated when more reports are filed. As of Tuesday afternoon:
Republican Jonathan Bush reported raising about $845,000 in the first quarter, but 60% of that, $500,000, was a personal loan to his own campaign. His totals were not yet available through the new website, but his quarterly fundraising and spending was provided by ethics staff.
Republican Robert Wessels was the only other active candidate that had filed. He raised nearly $11,600 for the quarter and has about $13,540 in cash.
