Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins wants to know why the Army didn’t trigger Maine’s “yellow flag” law for Robert Card given there were “so many warning signs” before the shooting, including when members of Card’s Army Reserve unit escorted him to a psychiatric hospital, the senator said Friday.
Card fatally shot 18 people and injured 13 more at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston on Oct. 25. He was found dead on Oct. 27.
Collins questioned why the Army made no requests to start the process of a yellow- or red-flag law in either Maine or New York, where Card had a two-week inpatient psychiatric hospital stay. In either state a judge would have looked at the facts of the case and decided if Card was a danger to himself or others.
“It could well have led to all of his weapons being taken away from him,” Collins said.
Collins’ statements come a day after The Associated Press interviewed a member of Card’s unit who tried to warn higher ups in September that Card might snap and commit a mass shooting. Police were requested to do a welfare check that same month, but did not make contact with Card.
The senator was touring St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor on Friday to see a new mammogram machine and where renovations will happen to make the hospital more accessible for older adults. She secured more than $2.2 million in federal funding for the hospital.
Collins also said that she is waiting to write her proposed legislation to direct the military to trigger a state’s yellow- or red-flag laws until the Army’s inspector general completes an investigation into the events that led up to the Lewiston shooting. The bill, which Collins announced in December, would order branches of the military to use those state laws to confiscate guns from people deemed to be a risk to themselves or others.
The Army’s inspector general will launch its investigation by Feb. 1. There are also two Army investigations into what happened.
Family members warned police that Card was paranoid in May. He had a two-week stay in July in a psychiatric unit, where New York State Police reported he made no threat to himself or others. The Army barred Card from handling weapons while on duty and deemed him nondeployable in August.
