LEWISTON, Maine — Maine State Police have released the findings of an independent review of its response to the Lewiston mass shooting.
Eighteen people were killed when 40-year-old Robert Card opened fire at two locations he'd frequented—a bowling alley and a cornhole league hosted by a bar and grill—on Oct. 25, 2023. An additional 13 people were injured. Card was found dead by suicide two days later.
On Sept. 6, 2024, Maine State Police Colonel William Ross requested that the New England State Police Administrator's Conference conduct an independent review of the Maine State Police After Action Review of the tragedy.
State police agencies in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont participated in this review. The focus of the review was specific to the AAR document itself and was not intended to be a second after-action review of the incident.
The review panel suggested that state police consider establishing a "behavioral threat assessment program" that would have the ability to prevent something like Lewiston from happening again. State police say, at the time of the shooting, it was already a partner in the Maine Threat Assessment Group, which was designed to identify, assess, and assist individuals like Card who exhibit behaviors indicating they are on a pathway to violence.
NEWS CENTER Maine asked Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck Thursday about that program and whether the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office, which was first alerted to Card's developing mental state and access to guns, was aware it existed.
"I think around self-deployment, our issues are officer safety as well as community safety. You have a limited number, a limited amount of resources, and we want to use those appropriately," Sauschuck said. "So, if people plug into an existing command post structure, then we can in turn deploy them as we see fit, depending on the circumstances."
"I do think current best practice and training includes when an active shooter, an active killing situation initially occurs, we want officers to respond immediately to that scene to take part and assist on whatever the emergency may be," he continued. "However, there is a time when that transitions over to an incident command system, which this one did very quickly. Once that occurs, then deployment should go through the command post."
Sauschuck said he didn't know whether or not sheriff's departments in Maine were aware of the Maine Threat Assessment Group, or when the group came into existence.
"I don't know exactly what date they were implemented. I know that it is a tool that is multidisciplinary. So, it has some of our federal partners, it has the Maine School Safety Center, the Department of Corrections," he explained. "It certainly has representatives from DPS. So, whether an independent sheriff knows that exists or utilizes that, I can't tell you that.''
The review panel also suggests that all law enforcement in Maine—local, county, and state—undergo the same advanced level active shooter training, which state police agree would be a good idea. Currently, every law enforcement officer in Maine gets basic active shooter training.
Independent Review of Maine State Police After Action Review (Includes Responses from Maine State Police)
Maine State Police After Action Review
These reports are different from the report done by the Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Tragedy in Lewiston, which was a commission appointed by Gov. Janet Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey with the goal of determining the facts of the shootings, including the months preceding the shootings and the police response to them. That report found that there were ample opportunities to intervene by both civilian law enforcement and the Army.
Final Report of the Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Tragedy In Lewiston
"Colonel Ross and his team look forward to utilizing all of the feedback detailed in the commission’s report, our own after-action report and the attached independent review to start the implementation phase of this process," Maine Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss said Thursday in a press release. "Continued training, policy review and collaboration with partner agencies from across the first responder spectrum is imperative and will be ongoing."