Current:Home > NewsAfter months of intense hearings, final report on Lewiston mass shooting to be released-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
After months of intense hearings, final report on Lewiston mass shooting to be released
View Date:2024-12-23 23:15:44
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — After more than a dozen public meetings, scores of witnesses and thousands of pages of evidence, a special commission created to investigate the deadliest shooting in Maine history is ready to issue its final report on Tuesday.
The independent commission began its work a month after the Oct. 25 mass shooting by an Army reservist that killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar and grill in Lewiston. Over nine months, there has been emotional testimony from family members and survivors of the shooting, law enforcement officials and U.S. Army Reserves personnel, and others.
The commission created by Gov. Janet Mills will hold a news conference to release the full report at Lewiston City Hall — less than 3 miles from (5 kilometers) from the two sites where the shootings took place.
It’s unclear if the report will contain any surprises. An interim report released in March said law enforcement should have seized the shooter’s guns and put him in protective custody weeks before the shootings.
The commission’s public hearings revealed the swift response by police to the shootings, but also the ensuing chaos during the massive search for the gunman. Also revealed were missed opportunities to stop the shooter, 40-year-old Robert Card, an Army Reservist whose mental health was spiraling.
Card’s sister testified at a hearing, her hand resting on his military helmet as she spoke.
Kathleen Walker, whose husband Jason was killed while rushing at Card to try to stop him, also testified, and said: “The system failed, and we can’t allow this to happen again.”
Family members and fellow reservists said Card had exhibited delusional and paranoid behavior months before the shootings. He was hospitalized by the Army during training in July 2023, but a commanding officer acknowledged not checking to ensure compliance on follow-up care.
The starkest warning came in September when a fellow reservist texted an Army supervisor, saying, “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.” Card was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a search that followed the shootings.
Army officials conducted their own investigation after the shootings that Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, then the chief of the Army Reserves, said found “a series of failures by unit leadership.” Three Army Reserve officers were disciplined for dereliction of duty, according to the report, which noted communication failures within the chain of command and between military and civilian hospitals.
Maine’s legislature passed new guns laws for the state, which has a tradition of firearms ownership, in the wake of the shootings. A three-day waiting period for gun purchases went into effect earlier this month.
The Lewiston commission is chaired by Daniel Wathen, a former chief justice of Maine’s highest court. The seven-member commission also included two former federal prosecutors, two additional former judges, a psychiatrist and executive at a psychiatric hospital, and the state’s former chief forensic psychologist.
veryGood! (646)
Related
- Martin Scorsese on the saints, faith in filmmaking and what his next movie might be
- People take to the beach as winter heat wave hits much of Spain
- Hawaii officials identify the last of the 100 known victims of the wildfire that destroyed Lahaina
- A landslide of contaminated soil threatens environmental disaster in Denmark. Who pays to stop it?
- Sister Wives' Janelle Brown Details to Meri Why She Can't Trust Ex Kody and His Sole Wife Robyn
- North Carolina state workers’ health plan ending coverage for certain weight-loss drugs
- People take to the beach as winter heat wave hits much of Spain
- LSU vs. South Carolina highlights, score, stats: Gamecocks win after Angel Reese fouls out
- Kim Kardashian Says She's Raising Her and Kanye West's 4 Kids By Herself
- Teen Mom's Kailyn Lowry Shares First Photo of Her Twins
Ranking
- Outgoing North Carolina governor grants 2 pardons, 6 commutations
- Missiles targeting a ship off Yemen explode without damage, the UK military says
- Russia’s Putin blames Ukraine for crash of POW’s plane and pledges to make investigation public
- One of two detainees who escaped from a local jail in Arkansas has been captured
- When does Spirit Christmas open? What to know about Spirit Halloween’s new holiday venture
- George Carlin estate sues over fake comedy special purportedly generated by AI
- 'In the Summers,' 'Didi' top Sundance awards. Here are more movies we loved.
- Judge green-lights narrowing of main road through Atlantic City despite opposition from casinos
Recommendation
-
John Krasinski Reveals Wife Emily Blunt's Hilarious Response to His Sexiest Man Alive Title
-
Brittany Watts, Ohio woman charged with felony after miscarriage at home, describes shock of her arrest
-
The Associated Press wins duPont-Columbia award for Ukraine war documentary ’20 Days in Mariupol’
-
Georgia Senate passes a panel with subpoena power to investigate District Attorney Fani Willis
-
Vogue Model Dynus Saxon Charged With Murder After Stabbing Attack
-
A bride was told her dress would cost more because she's Black. Her fiancé won't stand for it.
-
JetBlue informs Spirit “certain conditions” of $3.8 billion buyout deal may not be met by deadline
-
See Gigi Hadid and Bradley Cooper Confirm Romance With Picture Perfect Outing