Robert Card II sat on the bed of his New York hotel room in July and calmly explained to three New York State Police troopers what was going on.
“They keep saying [expletive] behind my back and I confront them, then they pretend like I’m hearing stuff,” he told the state troopers. “It’s happening everywhere. I’m hearing bits and pieces of it, and it’s getting old.”
Card was dressed in a black T-shirt and matching shorts with the words “Army” printed in yellow letters. He looked skinnier than his fellow reservists had ever seen him, they told police. His face was gaunt, and when he didn’t have a shirt on he looked “like skin and bones,” reservists told New York state troopers.
Card explained to the troopers, who had come into his room to convince him to willingly go to an Army hospital, that all of a sudden the people he’d known for years were speaking badly behind his back.
But, when the troopers told Card that wasn’t true and that other reservists were concerned, Card said he knew they were.
“They’re scared, ’cause I’m gonna friggin’ do something,” Card said to the New York State Police officers. “‘Cause I am capable.”
The state police were called by Card’s fellow reservists to Camp Smith, an Army National Guard base, on July 16, 2023. Card and other members of his Army Reserve unit were staying in a hotel on the base while they were training cadets at the U.S. Army’s West Point. The reservists called police because Card was acting in a “threatening manner” toward others, according to a New York State Police report the Bangor Daily News obtained in January.
Three months later he did do something. Card killed 18 people and injured 13 at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston on Oct. 25 before killing himself on Oct. 27.
The Bangor Daily News obtained first-of-its-kind footage that shows Card’s interaction with the New York State Police and other reservists’ interactions in July 2023. The body-worn camera footage provides greater detail of other reservists’ fear that Card was going to become violent. It also shows the challenge law enforcement and the reservists faced when trying to get Card help.
Images of reservists are redacted from the video, along with audio that may potentially identify them to “prevent an unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of others concerned,” per the record’s response.
Card’s first Sgt. Kelvin Mote told officers that he was afraid Card would “harm himself or someone else.”
But the state troopers told the reservists that unless Card made a specific threat to himself or others, they couldn’t forcefully take him to be evaluated.
“We’re caught between a rock and a hard place, because I, 100 percent, from what you guys are telling me it sounds like he really does need to see a mental health professional, and he needs to be evaluated,” one trooper told the reservists. “Our hands are tied.”
The reservists called another Army Reserve command member who told them and the state troopers over the phone that Card’s commander could issue a directive — a direct order — to undergo a mental health evaluation.
During the hour-long conversation before they approached Card, the reservists said multiple times that they were afraid of driving him to the hospital because of the possibility of him trying to bail out of the back seat or grab the steering wheel to cause a crash.
Card was required to follow that order and his commander could call local law enforcement to transport him for an evaluation, because refusing to follow a lawful order issued by a commanding officer is a crime, but state troopers on the scene refused.
“No, I’m not putting my hands on him. I’m not going to force him to do what you guys are requiring him to,” the trooper said to the reservists. “I will escort him, but I’m not going to drag him kicking and screaming.”
According to New York state trooper Anthony Clevinger’s report from the incident, Card never stated that he wanted to harm himself or others. Nor did Card’s fellow reservists ever explicitly say Card intended to harm himself or anyone else, according to the body camera footage.
While Card had not made any threats to “climb a clock tower” — referring to what is commonly pointed to as United State’s first modern mass shooting in 1966 — other reservists did not want him on the shooting ranges during drills involving large machine guns and hand grenades.
“He’s a gun nut, too,” a reservist said. “He has a lot of guns. He just spent 14 grand on a scope, too.
“I don’t know what he’s capable of. I’m not insinuating anything but I’m just saying he does have a ton of guns.”
New York has one of the country’s strictest red flag laws — a mechanism used to remove guns from potentially dangerous people that also limits their ability to purchase or handle them.
And, under the red flag law, police and district attorneys in New York are required to petition for what is called an extreme risk protection order when they have credible information that someone is likely to cause serious harm.
But, Card was never formally in New York State Police custody, the agency said in a statement.
“He remained under the purview of the military,” said Deena Cohen, a spokesperson for the New York State Police. “State Police was only there in a supporting capacity.”
But it wasn’t a member of Card’s reserve unit or anyone else from the military that got him to leave his hotel room and travel to the hospital for an evaluation. It was the New York State Police, the video shows.
“They’re going to take you, and we’re going to follow,” a trooper told Card. “The other option is you ride with us.”
“But that involves handcuffs,” another trooper added.
Card followed the command directive, because he said he had to, despite thinking it would not help him at all. He was taken to Keller Army Community Hospital before he ended up at Four Winds Hospital the next day.
It’s unclear how he ended up there, an Army spokesperson said previously. Card stayed at the psychiatric hospital for about two weeks before he returned to Maine on Aug. 3.
Shortly after Card returned to Maine, he attempted to purchase a suppressor for a firearm but marked on a required form that he had been involuntarily committed to a mental health institution, which would have made him ineligible to purchase or possess firearms.
Maine law enforcement officials said they had no evidence Card was ever involuntarily hospitalized in the weeks following the mass shooting.
In September police issued a “File 6,” saying Card was known to be “armed and dangerous,” which was canceled seven days before the mass shooting. Police went to Card’s home twice that month, attempting to talk with him and potentially take his guns, but they never made contact with him.
