AUGUSTA, Maine — One of the investigators tasked with reviewing Maine’s deadliest mass shooting on record worked directly under Gov. Janet Mills for years and has close ties to police, conducting a training session for police just this month.
The hiring of Brian MacMaster, who retired from Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office last year after 53 years in law enforcement, is one example of why lawmakers and experts have called into question the membership of the panel reviewing the lead-up and police response to the Oct. 25 mass shooting in which a gunman killed 18 people and injured 13 in Lewiston.
His past roles under Mills and Frey, his company’s contracts with state law enforcement agencies and his role in helping craft Maine’s “yellow flag” law now lead to him assisting the commission that may scrutinize where police could have stepped in to prevent last month’s shooting or whether the two-day manhunt for the gunman was handled effectively.
The contracts along with MacMaster’s “strong personal relationships” with police could create issues, said Joshua Filler, a Falmouth attorney and consultant who previously worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and White House. But MacMaster has his defenders, including a former attorney general and lawmaker who helped craft the yellow flag law.
“I have no question in my mind that he would have no trouble calling a spade a spade, even when it has to do with criticizing one of his law enforcement colleagues,” said Michael Carpenter, a Democrat from Houlton who served as the state’s chief law enforcement officer from 1991 to 1995 and has served two stints in the Maine Senate.
Though not alone among commission members and staff for having police ties, MacMaster, 74, stands out due to his connections with Mills and Frey, his history of working closely with police and his current position as a consultant for Dirigo Safety LLC, an Auburn-based company that offers training and other resources to police across New England.
He will pause his training of police on Maine’s yellow flag law, a statute scrutinized since the shooting, while working for the commission, said Kevin Kelley, a spokesperson for the panel led by Daniel Wathen, the retired chief justice of the state’s high court. MacMaster did not respond to requests for comment.
The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office and military officials have faced criticism over how they responded to warning signs that family and peers shared about Robert R. Card II, a 40-year-old Army reservist from Bowdoin, in the months before his rampage.
Another point of contention is the 48-hour manhunt that concluded when police found Card dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a Lisbon recycling center he previously worked. Police overlooked that spot earlier. An Androscoggin County sheriff’s deputy harshly criticized higher-ups with the Maine State Police for their management of the search.
Mills served eight years as attorney general before she became governor. She and Frey, the fellow Democrat who succeeded her, appointed seven commissioners that met last Monday for the first time.
The unpaid members, who include current and former attorneys, judges, prosecutors and medical experts, approved hiring four staffers: an executive director, two investigators and a spokesperson. Their compensation is not yet known, and spokespeople for Mills and Frey have not shared specifics on what factors played roles in hiring decisions.
MacMaster and Jim Osterrieder, a former Maine FBI chief, are the two investigators who will help obtain and review documents including military, medical and law enforcement records related to the mass shooting. The panel voted last week to ask the Legislature to provide it with subpoena power, something Mills, Frey and top legislative Democrats quickly backed.
MacMaster still holds an official role on the Maine Deadly Force Review Panel within the attorney general’s office. It examines police shootings. Since 1995, the attorney general’s office has investigated all instances of police using deadly force, clearing officers every time. MacMaster’s former division led those reports.
With Dirigo Safety, MacMaster helped lead a Nov. 13 training for police Maine’s yellow flag law along with Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck and an official with Spurwink, which provides mental health evaluations to determine if a person is a danger to themselves or others.
If deemed dangerous by an evaluator and a judge, police can temporarily confiscate the person’s weapons under the yellow flag law that took effect in 2020 after Mills and the leader of the pro-gun rights Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine helped water down a “red flag” proposal that would have let family and police go straight to a judge. MacMaster helped write the bill.
Experts said police should have triggered the yellow flag law with the Lewiston gunman, though its setup still may not have prevented a mass shooting. Card had stayed in a New York hospital for two weeks this summer after his Army Reserve unit and family had raised repeated concerns with police about his increasing paranoia and threats to commit a shooting.
Dirigo Safety has also received money from various state agencies. The Maine Criminal Justice Academy, the training center for police and corrections officers, paid Dirigo Safety $71,500 between July 2020 and June 2023 to write lesson plans for law enforcement training courses, DPS spokesperson Shannon Moss said.
Dirigo Safety also has a five-year contract with the Bureau of Highway Safety to cover costs associated with traffic safety and prosecution. The fiscal year 2024 contract is worth $922,800, according to Moss, who added that other police agencies use Dirigo Safety for online training.
Policymakers should not generally have people investigate things they have even indirect personal or financial stakes in, Filler said. But he added that MacMaster’s experience is a positive aspect.
“It cuts both ways,” Filler said.
The lawyer reiterated he preferred having the Legislature, rather than Mills and Frey, establish the commission. That matches criticism of the panel from some in the Legislature, several of whom said they were not familiar enough with MacMaster and other commissioners to comment on them but remained frustrated over the panel’s structure.
“I do wish that the four legislative caucuses each had a member on the commission,” Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, said.
Carpenter, the former attorney general, said he witnessed MacMaster’s integrity and willingness to listen to all sides when the pair met with angry residents after police killed Katherine Hegarty, a woman who was armed and had a history of mental illness, at her Jackman home in 1992.
“He will always do the right thing,” Carpenter said.
