We’ve reached the one-year anniversary of the tragic Lewiston, Maine shootings on October 25, 2023, and the fallout continues in a steady drumbeat of proposed laws, official investigation reports, political elections, and legal action.
The solemn occasion will be marked by a commemoration event at the Colisee on October 25, 2024 honoring victims, survivors, first responders, medical personnel and all those who have banded together over an incredibly difficult year to help the community heal.
In terms of impact, the findings of Governor Mills’ appointed Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Lewiston Shootings made the biggest. In August, the Commission echoed the findings of an interim report issued earlier in the year that the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office made an egregious error in judgment in not utilizing existing laws to take Robert Card II into protective custody to remove his firearms.
The Commission singled out Sgt. Aaron Skolfield, the 25-year veteran who responded to Card’s home in September to do a welfare check. Skolfield has vehemently denied he did anything wrong, and is, in fact, running for the position of sheriff in a November election against the incumbent, Joel Merry.
The Commission also took aim at the Army Reserve, noting that its soldiers in Bravo Company downplayed the seriousness of Card’s mental health decline when it interacted with the sheriff’s office, and that it failed to monitor Card after he was released from a psychiatric hospital three months before the shootings.
The Army Reserve has acknowledged it failed to follow up on Card’s mental health diagnosis, and has internally disciplined three soldiers. However, it withheld thousands of pages of documents from its own investigation from the Commission, and has been close-mouthed since, almost assuredly because of pending lawsuits which will be filed by lawyers representing the families of victims and survivors of the shootings.
As a result of the Lewiston shootings, Maine’s U.S. Senators, Susan Collins and Angus King, proposed legislation in September called the Armed Forces Crisis Intervention Notification Act, which would require all four branches of the armed services to notify states if they determine a member has been declared mentally unfit to use and possess military firearms due to credible threats of violence, and to utilize the states’ existing mental health intervention programs. The proposed bill would also require the military branches to provide relevant facts to state law enforcement agencies and judicial branches. This bill would plug the huge gap that often exists between the military and civilian law enforcement in identifying potential mass shooters before an incident can occur.
Democratic Congressman Jared Golden, another Maine politician with ties to the Lewiston shootings, is facing an unexpectedly stiff re-election fight from a first-term Republican state legislator – in large part because Golden announced days after the shootings that he would support an assault weapon ban after being a lifelong staunch Second Amendment supporter. His district includes Lewiston, where that message plays well in a city that’s experiencing an escalation in gun violence, but it also includes a wide swath of rural Maine towns, where he’s viewed by many as a traitor for his policy shift.
Locally, the Just-in-Time Recreation Center underwent a major renovation during a seven-month closure and reopened under the ownership of Samantha and Justin Juray. The leagues have returned, and the Bob & Lucy Violette Bowling Foundation is hard at work raising money to support youth bowlers and honor the legacy of the beloved couple, who were two of the eighteen victims that tragic night.
SchemengeesSchemengees Bar & Grille remains shuttered and with the unexpected death of co-owner David Lebel at the age of 57 in September. It will almost assuredly never reopen. However, a local outreach center for the homeless will open a warming center, food kitchen, and access to services there this fall. The new location will expand its footprint from 2,000 sq. ft. to 10,000 sq. ft., turning the site of senseless carnage into a beacon of hope for those who need it.
Finally, in mid-October, lawyers from four law firms representing one hundred survivors and victim’s family members announced their intent to sue the Department of Defense, the Army, and the Keller Army Community Hospital for “failing to protect and defend the people of Lewiston, Maine from a soldier who displayed warning signs of mental illness and specifically expressed intent to commit mass violence.”
The federal government has six-months to investigate the specific allegations laid out in the notices of claim filed by the law firms. If they fail to do so, the plaintiffs will formally file lawsuits. The defendants “broke their promises, failed to act reasonably, violated their own policies and procedures, and disregarded directives and orders, including those of Card’s treating medical providers,” the law firms added in a released statement.
Interestingly, they did not file notices of claim against the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office, which was singled out for blame by the independent commission for failing to take Card into protective custody, or Four Winds Hospital in Katonah, New York, which released him in July, 2023 after a nineteen-day stay in its adult psychiatric facility.
Underscoring the frequency of these shootings across the country, the law firms stressed the need for law enforcement, the military, and other institutions to tackle the issue head-on.
“Mass shootings, like what happened in Lewiston, are an epidemic in America. Consequently, those in positions of responsibility and authority are required to appreciate the warning signs and behaviors that telegraph the risk of mass violence, take them seriously, and act to prevent their occurrence," the claims said.
In a related development, Cynthia Young, the wife and mother of Just In Time victims William and Aaron Young, was appointed special administrator of Robert Card II’s estate, which will allow her to obtain his medical, mental health and military records - which were previously off-limits due to HIPAA and other restrictions. Card’s son and sole heir, Colby Card, did not contest the Sagadahoc County Probate Court ruling granting Cynthia Young access to the records.
