LEWISTON, Maine — Robert Card had been hearing voices since February 2023 and even had two run-ins with police leading up to a mass shooting that killed 18 people and injured 13.
According to police affidavits released by the Maine Attorney General's office, Card targeted Schemengees and Just-In-Time Recreation as he believed they were some of the businesses calling him a pedophile.
The documents also show Schemengees is the location where Card met his ex.
"Robert also believed his family was involved in the conspiracy," the affidavit said.
The affidavit said Robert Card believed the two locations he targeted, along with other establishments, were posting about him online being a pedophile.
Within five hours of the shooting, Robert's brother met with police in Lewiston about the incident.
At 9:26 p.m., police said in the affidavit Robert Card's sister called them to say the man reported in photographs was Robert Card.
Card's brother said Card had been in a relationship with someone he met at Schemengees. That relationship ended and Card started wearing hearing aids, which the report said was around the time Card started to hear voices.
The voices Card reportedly heard fall in line with reports released earlier Tuesday about the two times Card was reported to police in May 2023 and in September of 2023.
That timeline, which showed times when police worked to try and take Card's guns away, revealed the knowledge law enforcement had of Card.
The reports earlier show his son and ex alerted his son's school resource officer to the voices Card claimed to be hearing, and that he was talking about this to his son in public. This was in May.
None of the reports made to police in May were mentioned in the reports in September when Card threatened to shoot up the Saco National Guard.
Waiting for more details in the investigation is what a lot of families and community members are looking to, former Cumberland County District Attorney Jonathan Sahrbeck said.
"Looking at the 'why', will really go unanswered. It's something we're never going to know," Sahrbeck said.
He said knowing that Card had the agency to kill himself without serving a trial means the victims and families will never know more details than what law enforcement can find out.
Sahrbeck said it could start a conversation about the gaps in the legal world that stopped police from taking Card's weapons away before it was too late, and why something like Maine's Yellow Flag Law, was not used in this case.
"Until we have the steps taken in statute when it comes to grips with mental health issues, we're not going to be able to do as much as we might like unless that becomes law," Sharbeck said.