Hundreds of law enforcement officers were involved in the manhunt for Robert Card, the sole suspect in the Lewiston mass shooting that killed 18 people and wounded 13 others, who was found dead in Lisbon on Oct. 27, two days after the shooting. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A U.S. lieutenant colonel said the members of his unit did all they could when they were made aware of Robert Card II’s deteriorating mental health in the months before the reservist carried out a mass shooting in Lewiston, killing 18 people and injuring 13 others.
In testimony before the Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Tragedy in Lewiston on Monday, U.S. Army LTC Ryan Vasquez, the battalion commander of Card’s regiment, said he and other Army officials did not have the right to seize Card’s personal weapons, nor did they have explicit authority to store them at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Saco.
Vasquez also stressed the lack of authority the Army command structure has over those in the reserves in general.
Commission member Paula Silsby, former U.S. attorney for the District of Maine, asked Vasquez whether he thought his unit did everything they could have done, given these limitations in authority, with respect to Card.
“Yes, and some,” Vasquez responded, adding, “I don’t know a lot of average reserve units that would have handled that better than we did.”
What the U.S. Army knew and the actions taken regarding Card’s mental health leading up to the shooting has been questioned by the families of the Lewiston shooting victims and Maine’s congressional delegation. An Army Inspector General investigation into the events leading to the shooting is forthcoming, though the release date remains unclear.
Ahead of the hearing, Vasquez said he asked an Army force protection officer whether personal weapons could be stored in a reserve center, and received a response on May 30 stating that the practice wasn’t recommended or generally permitted. A copy of the memo was not made available at the time of Monday’s hearing.
Vasquez told the commission that Card would have had to voluntarily allow his personal weapons to be secured.
“He has a Fourth Amendment right,” Vasquez said, of the protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. “I don’t have the right — I can’t go into his house. That purely falls on local officials or federal officials in his area.”
In his testimony, Vasquez also continuously highlighted the limitations of Army authority over reservists like Card, who are part-time, reiterating many of the points previously made by a colonel in testimony to the commission last week.
Card wasn’t communicating with the Army on a regular basis following his discharge from a mental health facility in August 2023 and had told officials that he wanted to retire, Vasquez recalled. When asked by the commission whether reservists have the right to not talk to their superior officer, Vasquez said while that is not the case, it is difficult to discipline reservists who don’t.
“We can put them out eventually,” Vasquez said. “If we have the right paperwork, we can discharge them, but for not showing up or insubordination, but the process is very slow.”
Vasquez provided text communications with his predecessor, Lt. Col. McKinley Wood, for Monday’s hearing, in which the two discussed the unit before Vasquez took over command in June of 2023. However, Vasquez said they never discussed concerns about Card.
The first time Vasquez recalled hearing Card’s name was in July 2023, when the reservist started behaving erratically at West Point and underwent a command directed evaluation, which Vasquez said had been the appropriate response. Card thereafter spent time in a psychiatric facility before being discharged, along with a report recommending that measures be taken to remove all firearms and weapons from his home.
Commission member Geoffrey Rushlau, a former Maine District Court judge, questioned why Vasquez contacted local law enforcement as opposed to making a referral to the Maine State Police, pointing out that the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department often only has two or three people for the entire county.
Vasquez said it has long been his practice to contact the most local officials, thinking they have the closest relationship with the community.
“I assume Maine State Police means highways,” Vasquez said. “Sheriff is more local. So I would go to the sheriff first.”
In an interim report released in March, the commission found shortcomings throughout the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department and specifically mentioned Sgt. Aaron Skolfield for only making “limited attempts” to contact Card when he was called to do a wellness check the month before the Oct. 25 shooting. Additionally, the commission said Skolfield failed to follow up on leads and review the available information that showed Card was a threat.
Commission member George (Toby) Dilworth, former assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine, asked Vasquez, “What could the Reserve have done differently?”
Vasquez declined to say. “If you want to ask me about a fact, I’ll answer a fact. I don’t want to speculate.”
Dilworth pressed again, “But as the commanding officer of this unit, you must have thought about things that could have been done differently?”
Vasquez responded, “Obviously, sir,” but went on to say, “I think that mental health is a national issue. It’s very complicated. There’s a lot of layers to it, and people need to understand it better. Everybody. We need to fund it better, and also appreciate the limitations I have as a part-time commander in the reserves as far as my authorities go and do not go.”
Following the anticipated release of the Inspector General’s report, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she intends to draft legislation to require military services to report when a service member poses a threat to themselves or others, while still protecting Second Amendment rights.
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