Robert Card was given a glowing review by his Army superiors six months before he carried out Maine’s deadliest mass shooting.
In the performance evaluation — obtained by the Portland Press Herald among a trove of Army records — Card was called a “consummate professional” who “exceeded standards” and demonstrated leadership worthy of promotion.
That evaluation, dated from April 2023, stands in stark contrast to the assessments of Card’s friends and family who by that date had long been concerned about his worsening mental health and paranoia.
His fellow soldiers had begun to fear that Card would one day “snap and commit a mass shooting.” But an independent investigation found the Army Reserve downplayed those warnings, calling one reservist an “alarmist.”
In July, while Card and other reservists were at West Point in New York to help train cadets, Card was taken to Keller Army Community Hospital before he ended up at Four Winds Hospital, where he stayed for about two weeks before returning to Maine on Aug. 3.
Body camera footage from New York state troopers who had come to his hotel room to convince Card to go willingly to the hospital showed the reservist acknowledging his fellow soldiers’ fears.
“They’re scared, ’cause I’m gonna friggin’ do something,” Card told the troopers. “‘Cause I am capable.”
When he returned to Maine, the Army prohibited Card from handling weapons and ammunition and participating in live-fire drills, as well as deemed him “non-deployable.”
Card went on to kill 18 people and injure 13 others at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston on Oct. 25 before killing himself on Oct. 27.