Maine mass shooter Robert Card is seen in chilling footage telling state police ‘I am capable’, after fellow soldiers dialed 911 over fears he was ‘gonna friggin’ do something’.
Card, a reservist, killed 18 people and wounded 13 at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston in October of last year leading to the largest manhunt in state history.
The body of Card, 40, was found at a recycling facility in Lisbon two days after the attacks, after he died by suicide.
Just months earlier on July 16, police were called and Card was ordered to go to an Army facility to be hospitalized after fellow soldiers grew worried about him.
The footage provides a chilling glimpse of Card after he had been involved in an altercation and locked himself in his motel room, alarming reservists.
In the newly-released bodycam footage, he can be heard telling state police: ‘They’re scared ’cause I’m gonna friggin’ do something. Because I am capable.’
In police body cam recorded on July 16, Card is ordered to go to an Army facility to be hospitalized after fellow soldiers grew worried about him
The footage provides a chilling glimpse of Card after he had been involved in an altercation and locked himself in his motel room, alarming reservists
One officer can be heard probing the remark, asking Card, ‘What do you mean by that?’
Card, who appears agitated, starkly replies, ‘Nothing,’ before he is informed he would be taken to an army hospital to speak with a counselor.
He can also be heard telling police in the footage that people were talking behind his back for about six months, starting rumors that he was gay and a pedophile.
In the video, Card’s fellow reservists, whose names were redacted, expressed concern that he had lost weight and was all ‘skin and bones.’
They also said his behavior had changed markedly over six months, with a man who identified himself as Card’s first sergeant telling the officers ‘our concern is that he’s either going to hurt himself or someone else.’
One of the reservists also described Card as a ‘gun nut’ who spent $14,000 on a scope.
The reservist added: ‘I don’t know what he’s capable of. I’m not insinuating anything. But I’m just saying he does have a ton of guns.’
Card was driven to Keller Army Hospital for evaluation by fellow reservists and ended up spending two weeks at a psychiatric hospital.
Initial investigations have already found missed chances and red flags involving Card were rife, with reports revealing colleagues and family members repeatedly raised alarm about threats he’d made in the months before the shooting.
The Ruger .308-caliber assault rifle used in the killings in Lewiston was legally purchased by Card on July 6, less than two weeks before his actions led to his two-week hospitalization, Maine state police said.
On October 25, 2023, Robert Card walked into a bowling alley and later a bar in Lewiston Maine and shot dead 18 people before turning the gun on himself
Card killed 18 people in the massacre (pictured), in what has become the deadliest mass shooting of 2023
He was hospitalized after suffering several psychotic episodes, and told superiors he had been hearing voices and threatened the base where he was stationed.
In May of last year, police were alerted that Card had become paranoid and they were concerned about his access to guns.
In August, he was then barred from handling any weapons when he was on duty and declared that he was nondeployable by the Army.
Then in September, reservists were so concerned that he was about to kill that they told each other to ‘change the passcode’ to the entrance gate of their base in Saco.
One text by a Sergeant Hudson reads, ‘Change the passcode to the unit gate and be armed if Sergeant First Class Card does arrive. Please. I believe he’s messed up in the head.
‘And threaten the unit other and other places. I love [him] to death but I do not know how to help him and he refuses to get help.
‘I’m afraid he’s going to f**k up his life from hearing things he thinks he’s heard. Dropped him off he was concerned his weapons were still in the car…He still has all his weapons.’
These text messages sent by an Army Reservist Sergeant to his supervisor in September reveal the extent to which there were concerns about Robert Card
In another, he said: ‘I think he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.’
In Maine, a warning that Card might ‘shoot up’ the Saco armory where his reserve unit was based prompted a Sagadahoc County deputy to try to meet with Card at his home in Bowdoin.
Card did not come to the door, even though he was believed to be inside, and the deputy said he did not have legal authority to knock down the door to force an encounter to assess whether he should be taken into protective custody.
That step is necessary to trigger Maine’s ‘yellow flag’ law, which allows a judge to temporarily remove someone’s guns during a psychiatric health crisis.
The deputy said an Army official suggested letting the situation ‘simmer’ rather than forcing a confrontation. The deputy also received assurances from Card’s family that they were removing his access to guns.
Ultimately, Card was never confronted, and the shooting rampage he went on became the deadliest mass shooting in Maine’s history.
A commission is currently investigating potential missed opportunities that could have prevented the shooting, with a written report expected in the coming months.
In December, a 93-page independent report found that Maine sheriff’s office response to concerns about Card’s declining mental health was ‘reasonable.’
A warning that Card might ‘shoot up’ the Saco armory where his reserve unit was based prompted a Sagadahoc County deputy to try to meet with Card at his home in Bowdoin, seen here
Card killed 18 people and wounded 13 in October of last year leading to the largest manhunt in state history
A make-shift memorial lines Main Street, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, Lewiston, Maine
Liz Seal, who lost her husband, Josh, in the shooting and who is now raising four children on her own, called the videos ‘disturbing.’
‘They show there were clear warning signs that Card posed a risk to others and yet the system failed to ensure that his guns were taken away from him,’ she said.
Travis Brennan, attorney for some of the victims, said the video corroborates concerns about the overall failures of the law enforcement, legal and mental health systems to take away Card’s weapons.
On Friday, Brennan said: ‘His fellow members in the reserves were so concerned about his behavior and the things he was saying that they didn’t feel safe with him having guns on the military base and they didn´t want to train with him.
‘But somehow the system allowed him to walk out into the community and still have access to his guns.’
Ben Gideon, another attorney for victims, said the police video demonstrates there was a ‘command directive’ for Card to be evaluated and that made his psychiatric hospitalization ‘compulsory and involuntary,’ and that he should not have had access to weapons under federal law, regardless of New York’s red flag law and Maine’s yellow flag law.