AUGUSTA, Maine — Investigators are already encountering uncooperative witnesses as they probe the Lewiston mass shooting, the head of a panel appointed by Gov. Janet Mills told Maine lawmakers on Monday.
The remarks from Anne Jordan, the executive director of the commission, were in support of a measure backed by the Democratic governor and top lawmakers in both parties to grant the body subpoena power to continue the investigation of the Oct. 25 shooting.
Jordan did not identify any particular people or agencies but mentioned the U.S. Army, which is facing questions over its handling of warnings about Lewiston gunman Robert Card II, an Army reservist, before his rampage. Several people have so far refused to appear or have been directed by superiors to not appear before the panel, she said.
“We have run into some issues,” Jordan, a lawyer and former public safety commissioner, said during a meeting of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, adding the commission has allowed victims or others who directly witnessed the shooting to not participate.
Jordan declined to elaborate on her remarks to a reporter after the hearing. The Legislature started an expedited process Monday of granting subpoena power to the independent commission investigating the Lewiston mass shooting.
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The bill, sponsored by the top Democrats and Republicans in each chamber, would allow the commission to obtain additional records and require witnesses to testify as the panel continues to review the lead-up and police response to Maine’s deadliest mass shooting on record.
The seven-member panel formed by Mills and Attorney Aaron Frey in the wake of the Oct. 25 shooting that left 18 dead and 13 wounded had requested subpoena power from lawmakers at its first meeting in November. It met for the second time publicly last Thursday.
Mills and Frey produced the bill last week after working with top lawmakers and commissioners to draft it. Commission chair Daniel Wathen, a former chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, said in November his goal is to produce a final report within six months.
The legislation requires a two-thirds majority in each chamber to take effect immediately and looks likely to pass quickly without much issue. Lawmakers on Monday suggested tweaks regarding privacy-related provisions of records and testimony. A committee work session followed by floor votes are the remaining steps to get the bill to Mills for a signature.
The subpoena power bill would let the commission require witnesses to testify during a public meeting, unless a witness or majority of the commission members decide to take the testimony during a private session. The commission could also request and receive records from any state agency deemed “necessary to fulfill its fact-finding mission,” per the legislation.
Witnesses may have attorneys on hand, and commissioners may ask the Superior Court to compel compliance with a subpoena in “any state, federal or military court or tribunal,” the bill says.
Card, of Bowdoin, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound two days after his rampage at a bowling alley and bar. His family and military peers had warned law enforcement in May and September of his increasing paranoia, threats to “shoot up” a reserve center in Saco and access to guns. Police and his reserve superiors did not make contact with Card following a welfare check at his home and statewide alert sent the month before the mass shooting.
Deputies and leaders with the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office testified last week to the commission on their interactions with and attempts to locate Card, reiterating information from a third-party review of the sheriff’s office that found Army Reserve superiors had downplayed warnings about Card.
The commission is scheduled to meet three more times between Thursday and early March, with family members of shooting victims, Maine State Police and U.S. Army personnel called to appear.
