Records Reveal Maine Authorities Were Told of Mass Shooter’s Plans Months Before

According to newly-released records, both the Army Reserve and a Maine sheriff’s department were aware of Robert R. Card II’s deteriorating mental health more than five months before he killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, the deadliest mass shooting in America this year, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Chelsia Rose Marcius report for the New York Times.

Law enforcement officials failed to make contact with Card despite records showing that only six weeks ago he had grown increasingly paranoid, punched a friend and said he was going to carry out a shooting spree. Card’s family also told a sheriff’s deputy in May that he had become angry and paranoid starting early this year, claiming that people were accusing him of being a pedophile. And in July, Card was treated at a psychiatric hospital in New York for two weeks, while earlier his former wife and son had warned police of his deteriorating mental state. Card’s former wife told the deputy that he had recently collected 10 to 15 handguns and rifles from his brother’s home and brought them back to his own house. Police officials said they would review procedures for wellness checks