Report finds Army leadership failures leading up to Maine bowling alley mass shooting

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Nine months ago, a man shot and killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine. He was a member of the Army Reserve. Now, the U.S. Army has released a report that found multiple failures in the leadership of the gunman's Army Reserve unit and in the military's behavioral health system leading up to the shooting. Maine Public Radio's Kevin Miller is here to talk about the findings. Hi there.

KEVIN MILLER, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.

SHAPIRO: Why did the Army launch this investigation into the mass shooting?

MILLER: So the Army Reserve was facing a lot of questions from the gunman's family, from the public and from Maine's congressional delegation about ways this tragedy could have been prevented. Robert Card was a longtime member of the Army Reserve that provides weapons training to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

And he was actually at West Point back in July of last year when his commanders really first noticed that something was seriously wrong with him. By this point, some members of Card's family, they'd been raising concerns and alarms with local police and with the Reserves about his worsening paranoia and his access to guns. But it was after this incident at West Point Card's commanders ordered him to have a psychological evaluation at a military hospital. He was then transferred to a civilian psychiatric hospital for longer term evaluation, but that civilian hospital released him after two weeks. And then three months later, he killed 18 people.

SHAPIRO: So this report focuses on what happened during that civilian hospital stay and just after. What did it find?

MILLER: Yeah, so this is where we start to see a series of failures that really allowed this clearly troubled individual to kind of fall through the cracks. Staff at the civilian hospital were apparently so concerned about Card's mental state that they actually began a court process to have him involuntarily committed. But then the hospital withdrew that request and released Card. And the Army investigator wrote that it's unclear what prompted that abrupt turnaround because that civilian facility did not cooperate with the investigation because they were citing medical privacy laws.

SHAPIRO: You said there were a series of failures. How is the Army Reserve found to be at fault?

MILLER: Yeah. So the investigator found that Card's commanders didn't follow up with the Army hospital at West Point after he was released. About a month and a half later, a fellow reservist warned that his friend actually might snap and commit a mass shooting. And that prompted commanders to reach out to the local sheriff's office.

But since Card was a reservist, commanders had very little legal authority over him in his private life. They couldn't order him to take his medication or take away his personal guns. But the report said that they kept him on active duty status. And if they had done that, they actually would have had more power to compel him to get treatment, but they didn't. So ultimately, three officers face some form of punishment for this dereliction of duty.

SHAPIRO: It seems that there were lots of miscommunications in the lead up to this.

MILLER: Yeah, there are miscommunication failures all throughout the military and civilian hospital over who was responsible for tracking Card after he was released. There was miscommunication between Reserve leaders and local law enforcement. Card actually had a case manager through the Army, but he eventually stopped talking to her and admitted that he wasn't taking his antipsychotic medication, and he wasn't getting treatment. That nurse later closed Card's case because he wasn't communicating. So yeah, the report pretty much highlights a whole lot of failures across the board.

SHAPIRO: And so what happens now?

MILLER: Well, the investigator has recommended that the Pentagon review its behavioral health policies and look into whether the civilian hospital should even be allowed to care for medical personnel. But members of Maine's congressional delegation are exploring ways to even force the military to take more proactive or aggressive steps when a military member poses a threat to themselves or others.

SHAPIRO: Kevin Miller of Maine Public Radio. Thank you.

MILLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.