A year after an Army reservist committed a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, attorneys representing survivors and victims’ families said Tuesday they are filing negligence claims against the federal government that could pave the way for 100 individual lawsuits.
The plaintiffs file legal notices of their intent to sue the Department of Defense, the Army, and the Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point, New York, alleging they failed to respond to warning signals and threats made by the shooter, Robert Card, has expressed in the months before. he killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar on October 25.
“Today marks the first step toward ensuring accountability and justice for the families and victims of the worst mass shooting in Maine history,” attorney Benjamin Gideon of Gideon Asen LLC said in a statement.
The legal notices are not part of a class action lawsuit; four law firms represent the 100 people.
One of the firms, National Trial Law in Texas, helped survivors and families of those killed in a 2017 church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, committed by an Air Force member. The federal government was found partially liable in that case, and the survivors agreed to a settlement last year after the Justice Department appealed.
The lawsuits in Maine also target the federal government and actions taken by military members.
The law firms said the U.S. has six months to investigate and assess the claims and that if the country denies them or refuses to act — whichever comes first — the plaintiffs could file a lawsuit in federal court .
“If the US chooses to run out the clock by responding to our claims without taking action, we will file our action six months and one day from today,” Gideon added. “We are committed to moving forward and ensuring accountability and justice for our clients.”
Major reports released in recent months have shed light on possible missteps by the military, law enforcement and hospital staff and how the shooting could have been averted.
The gunman, 40, was found dead by suicide after a two-day manhunt.
A July internal military report examining the military’s response detailed how Card’s unit failed to follow certain procedures after he was involved in a pushing incident with another reservist in July 2023, which left him in a psychiatric facility for two years department of a civil hospital was admitted. to soften. At the time, his reported symptoms included psychosis and homicidal thoughts, and the Army investigation said he had drawn up a “hit list.”
The military subsequently banned Card from having access to service weapons.
A separate independent report released in August by a state commission concluded that while the shooter was solely responsible for his conduct, other failures played a role, including that leaders of Card’s unit “failed to take the necessary steps to correct the threat he posed to the public. ,” such as ignoring “strong recommendations” from his healthcare providers to remain involved in his care and ensure that all weapons in his home were removed. The commission also found that his unit “failed to share any information it knew about prior threats he had made” with the local sheriff’s office.
Moreover, according to the committee, medical staff members at Keller Army Community Hospital, where Card was initially evaluated last year, did not report the so-called SAFE Act. The report is used to alert authorities when people may pose a danger to themselves or others.
The Army and independent commission reports also detailed how Card’s family warned a Sagadahoc County sheriff’s sergeant about his deteriorating mental health. The report went on to say that law enforcement agencies had probable cause to implement Maine’s “yellow flag” law, which allows them to confiscate firearms from people if they are believed to pose a threat to themselves or others, but that they never did has happened.
Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry said after the shooting that the Army Reserve had informed his department of Card’s threats to “shoot up” the National Guard base in Saco, Maine. Merry said he sent a statewide alert to law enforcement agencies after sending officers to Card’s home in Bowdoin, near Lewiston, but they couldn’t find him.
It also investigated whether Card’s years of exposure to low-level blasts as a hand grenade instructor in the military were linked to the “severe” traumatic brain injury that researchers found evidence of this year. The Army denied in its report that any brain injuries were related to his service.
The plaintiffs’ notices allege that Card “never received the services and assistance he needed” and that he was “released back into the community without a plan to address the ongoing risks he posed to the community. ”
The Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the negligence claims.
Despite the clear warning signs, a definitive motive for the massacre remains unclear. Card’s family has said he claimed to have heard voices months ago when he was being fitted for powerful hearing aids, and that he had become increasingly paranoid.
Cynthia Young, whose husband, William, and son, Aaron, 14, were killed at the bowling alley, was granted access to Card’s mental health records and other records in court this month as part of her effort to find out why the shooting happened .
“As terrible as the shooting was, what is even more tragic is that there were many opportunities to prevent it,” Young said in a statement released by her attorney, “and they were not taken.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
