After months of intensive hearings, the final report on the Lewiston massacre is released

LEWISTON, Maine — After more than a dozen public meetings, dozens of witness statements and thousands of pages of evidence, a special commission investigating the deadliest shooting in Maine history is ready to release its final report on Tuesday.

The independent commission began its work a month after the Oct. 25 mass shooting in which a U.S. Army reservist killed 18 people at a bowling alley and bar and grill in Lewiston. Over nine months, it collected emotional testimony from family members and survivors of the shooting, law enforcement officials, members of the U.S. Army Reserve and others.

The commission, appointed by Governor Janet Mills, will hold a press conference to release the full report at Lewiston City Hall, less than three miles from the two locations where the shootings occurred.

It is unclear whether the report will contain any surprises. An interim report released in March said police should have seized the shooter's weapons and taken him into protective custody weeks before the shootings.

The commission's public hearings revealed the police's rapid response to the shootings, but also the chaos that followed during the large-scale 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 deteriorating.

Card's sister testified at a hearing and placed her hand on his military helmet.

Kathleen Walker, whose husband Jason was killed when he rushed to stop Card, also testified, saying, “The system has failed, and we cannot allow this to happen again.”

Family members and fellow reservists said Card had been exhibiting delusional and paranoid behavior months before the shootings. He was hospitalized by the Army in July 2023 while in training, but a commanding officer admitted not checking to see if follow-up care was being followed.

The clearest warning came in September, when a fellow reservist texted an Army superior saying, “I think he's about to freak out and commit a massacre.” During a search after the shootings, Card was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

After the shootings, Army officials conducted their own investigation. Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, then commander of the Army Reserves, said they found “a number of failures on the part of the unit's leadership.” Three Army Reserve officers were disciplined for dereliction of duty, according to the report, which found communication deficiencies within the chain of command and between military and civilian hospitals.

Following the shootings, Maine lawmakers passed new gun laws for the state, which has a long tradition of gun ownership. 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 the Supreme Court of Maine. The seven-member commission also includes two former federal prosecutors, two other former judges, a psychiatrist and director of a psychiatric clinic, and the state's former chief forensic psychologist.