Survivors of the mass shooting that killed 18 people last October in Lewiston, Maine, notified the Defense Department on Tuesday that they intended to sue the military for negligence. Dozens of survivors, along with a smaller number of relatives of the victims, said that the Army had failed to responsibly address the shooter’s declining mental health and threats of violence.
Nearly one year after the mass shooting, which took place at a bar and a nearby bowling alley, lawyers for the survivors and the victims’ families cited “numerous unheeded red flags and warning signs that should have triggered action on the part of the Army.” Such action, they said, might have prevented the shooting.
The behavior of the gunman, Robert R. Card II, a 40-year-old Army Reserve grenade instructor from Bowdoin, Maine, had concerned Army colleagues and supervisors for months before the shooting, which was the worst in Maine history. But even as his threats and erratic behavior escalated last fall, neither the Army nor anyone else took away his firearms. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound two days after the shooting.
“The Army knew more about the risks he posed than anyone else, and had multiple opportunities to intervene, yet they failed at every turn,” said Travis Brennan, a lawyer representing the families and the survivors. “Unless people stand up and speak out about the broken systems that lead to these shootings, nothing will change.”
Under federal law, the government has six months to review the claims that the group submitted on Tuesday and offer a response. After that, the families intend to file civil suits in federal court, Mr. Brennan said.
Other such cases have taken long to resolve. Five years after a man killed 26 people at a church in Texas in 2017, a federal judge found the government 60 percent liable and awarded survivors and families $230 million. The judge pointed to the fact that the Air Force had failed to submit records of prior criminal offenses to a database that would have blocked the gunman from buying weapons. (After the government appealed the ruling, a 2023 settlement reduced the amount paid to families.)
A commission that investigated the Maine shooting laid blame on both the Army and a local sheriff’s office; in its final report, released in August, it found that the two entities should have done more to protect the community. But lawyers for the survivors and the families said at a news conference on Tuesday that they did not anticipate further legal action against local law enforcement, because the Army had not shared key facts with the sheriff’s office in Sagadahoc County, where the gunman lived, including a doctor’s directive that his guns be removed.
An Army investigation into the shooting, whose findings were released in July, found that Army Reserve commanders failed to follow procedures as Mr. Card’s mental health deteriorated last summer and fall. Three Army Reserve officers were given administrative punishments for their lapses; their names were not made public.
The Army has said that it is making changes to its psychological health program for reservists, and that it is “committed to reviewing the findings and implementing sound changes to prevent tragedies like this from recurring.” An Army spokesman, Bryce Dubee, said on Tuesday that the Army would not comment on ongoing litigation.
Lawyers for the Maine survivors and relatives said the military should have shown more concern about mental health before last October, given that “a disproportionate number of mass shootings are committed by current and former members of the military” and that service members are “subject to lots of trauma.”
“How did Robert Card go from a normal, stable, respected member of his unit to someone suffering from homicidal ideation, with a hit list?” said Benjamin Gideon, another lawyer representing the families. “And why didn’t the Army care enough to find out before Oct. 25, 2023? How many other Robert Cards are out there right now, suffering from mental illness, with ready access to assault weapons?”
An autopsy report released in March revealed that scientists who had examined the gunman’s brain had found significant damage, similar to that found in the brains of veterans exposed to weapons blasts. But the Army’s investigation found no link between Mr. Card’s mental health problems and the years he spent working as a grenade instructor.
Cynthia Young, whose husband, Bill, 44, and 14-year-old son, Aaron, were killed in the Lewiston shooting, spoke at the news conference of “the pain, trauma and regrets that will never go away.”
“There needs to be accountability for the actions not taken,” she said. “I hope we will initiate changes in these agencies that will prevent this from ever happening again.”
Elizabeth Seal, whose husband, Josh, 36, was killed in the shooting, described the losses her four young children felt each day without their father.
“Josh was only 36,” said Ms. Seal, who is deaf, speaking in American Sign Language through an interpreter. “He had so much more to do.”
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