A commission investigating the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, concluded on Friday that local law enforcement officers should have taken the gunman, Robert R. Card II, into custody and seized his weapons before he killed 18 people on Oct. 25.
The decision to instead give Mr. Card’s family responsibility for removing his weapons was “an abdication of law enforcement’s responsibility,” the commission wrote in its 30-page interim report, intended to provide early findings to legislators who are weighing several proposals for changes to the state’s gun laws, spurred by the events.
The local sheriff’s department had “sufficient probable cause” to take Mr. Card into custody and remove his weapons because of a “likelihood of serious harm,” the commission said in its report.
The seven-member commission has held seven public meetings since last November, collecting testimony from Mr. Card’s Army Reserve supervisors, local and state police officers, as well as survivors and family members of the victims.
The panel has pressed witnesses for details of their actions in the months leading up to the shooting, when the gunman displayed increasingly erratic and paranoid behavior, convinced that people he did not know were calling him a pedophile.
Persons:
Robert R, Card’s
Organizations:
Card’s Army Reserve
Locations:
Lewiston , Maine