Reserve superior faces criticism
Lewiston shootings panel says he downplayed signs
AUGUSTA, Maine — State commissioners investigating the Lewiston shootings questioned Thursday whether Robert R. Card II’s superior in the Army Reserve had downplayed reports of Card’s threats and violent behavior to law enforcement in the months before the attack, and failed to carry out his responsibility to ensure Card received required care after being discharged from a mental health hospital.
Card’s wife and son had reported their concerns about Card’s mental health to local police in May, and he was hospitalized in New York for his erratic behavior while with his unit for training. In September, a fellow reservist warned his superiors Card had punched him and threatened to commit a shooting.
Army Reserve Captain Jeremy Reamer, Card’s superior, had ordered Card to undergo an evaluation while in New York. But Reamer didn’t tell sheriffs the medical staff recommended Card’s guns be taken from his home, according to an interim report by the commission.
On Thursday, commissioners questioned why Reamer appeared to downplay warnings from the fellow reservist, included that Card had threatened to shoot up the unit’s base in Saco. While Reamer said he took the warnings made by Sergeant Sean Hodgson seriously, he told two Saco officers that Hodgson “is not the most credible of our soldiers.”
“So is it fair to say captain that on the 16th [of September], in conversations you had with Maine law enforcement officers who were in a position to respond ... you did everything you could to undermine Mr. Hodgson’s credibility?” Paula Silsby, a commissioner and a former US attorney for Maine, asked Reamer during the hearing at the University of Maine in Augusta.
Reamer said that was not his intention. “How it’s interpreted is entirely on them,” said Reamer, who testified under oath after being subpoenaed by the commission.
Reamer, who is also a Nashua, N.H., police officer, declined to comment after testifying and referred questions to the Army’s public affairs office.
During the military training in New York in July, Card’s erratic behavior led Reamer to order him to undergo an evaluation at Keller Army
Community Hospital in West Point, N.Y. An Army psychologist there sent Card to the Four Winds mental health hospital in Katonah for treatment.
At Four Winds, he received a diagnosis of unspecified psychosis, according to commissioners Thursday.
Reamer testified that he relied on Hodgson to stay in contact with Card while he was at Four Winds. He also testified that he never received a critical form sent by the Army outlining a treatment plan for Card following the hospitalization due to an apparent email problem.
“My email was down at the time. So I did not actually see this counseling form until later. So I was not able to follow up,” with Card, Reamer said.
After medical staff recommended that Card’s personal weapons be taken from his home, Reamer said, he didn’t have the authority to seize Card’s weapons.
It was Hodgson who became the intermediary between the family and the Army, according to Toby Dilworth, a former US attorney for Maine and a member of the commission.
Reamer, in his testimony, described an arrangement made through Hodgson in which Card granted his family permission to retrieve his weapons from his home. Hodgson faced a domestic violence case that prohibited him from having access to firearms, so he couldn’t retrieve them himself, according to Dilworth.
Dilworth pointed out that the arrangement described by Reamer was a “civil agreement” that wouldn’t have prevented Card from asking his family to return his guns. They would have no legal right to withhold them if Card wanted them back, Dilworth said.
“So this was not a good plan?” Dilworth asked.
“I think it’s a viable plan,” Reamer replied.
Reamer said he also faced difficulty ordering Card to undergo mental health treatment following his hospital discharge, because such authority did not extend beyond Card’s full-time deployment.
But Reamer acknowledged he didn’t take advantage of a Reserve program intended to help members receive care, even when they are not working with their units. Nor did he follow up with Card to make sure he was attending his medical appointments, which was Reamer’s responsibility as Card’s superior.
“There were tools available to you to facilitate your providing Sergeant Card with the help that he needed to maintain his post discharge follow up plan. And you didn’t avail yourself of those,” said Paula Silsby, a commissioner and another former US attorney for Maine.
Commissioners also heard from a small number of victims, including Jamie Jordan and her daughter Gwen, who were at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley the night of Oct. 25. Jordan remembered hearing a “pop” sound the moment Card began his attack.
She remembered grabbing her youngest son and another boy, and hiding them from view, where she could watch Card until he finally left. Her voice choked up as she described the horrific scene following the shooting and the long wait before being reunited with her children later that night.
Card gunned down 18 people with an assault rifle and wounded 13 others in Maine’s deadliest mass shooting.
“It’s been a struggle dealing with normal day-to-day life after this shooting. But it’s been made even harder not knowing where to turn,” Jamie Jordan said. “Through all this, my heart breaks for all those that are involved.”