Family member of Lewiston shooting victims wins access to information from Robert Card II’s estate

BATH, Maine — A woman whose husband and son were killed in last year’s mass shooting in Lewiston was granted access Tuesday to shooter Robert Card II’s estate in a move that further foreshadows lawsuits likely to come from victims and survivors.

Cynthia Young of Winthrop is represented by Portland attorney Travis Brennan and other lawyers in Card’s probate case. Young’s 44-year-old husband, Bill, and 14-year-old son, Aaron, died in the Oct. 25, 2023, shooting while bowling at Just-In-Time Recreation.

She filed for access to the estate over the summer, and Sagadahoc County Probate Judge David Paris granted it during a hearing in Bath on Tuesday. Young’s move is not about money but access to Card’s medical, military and other records that are “important to help those who have been affected by this tragedy to evaluate potential legal claims,” according to a court filing.

“Those materials are critical in terms of piecing together important parts of the tragic story that unfolded here,” Brennan said after Tuesday’s hearing, adding his team will soon send records requests to the two New York hospitals Card stayed at last summer as well as the Army.

It was a quiet but notable step as the first action taken in court by a family member of a Lewiston shooting victim nearly a year after Card killed 18 people at a bar and bowling alley. The families are expected to bring lawsuits that could target the Army Reserve and police agencies that dealt with Card in the weeks before the shooting.

The goals include understanding how and why Card’s mental health deteriorated in 2023 and why Army and medical personnel did not take more steps to remove his firearms before his rampage, Brennan said. The attorney also said the records could shed more light on communication between Army leadership and medical providers at the time of Card’s August 2023 hospital discharge.

Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist from Bowdoin who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in nearby Lisbon two days after the mass shooting, did not leave a will. His son is his sole heir and did not object to Young receiving records, according to court documents.

John Lightbody, a Portland lawyer listed in court records as representing Card’s estate, was not at Tuesday’s hearing and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Although Young is the sole petitioner in the estate case, Brennan and fellow attorney Ben Gideon are also representing more than 90 clients affected by the shooting. Young attended Tuesday’s hearing with her father-in-law, Bob Young, and the legal team. Cynthia Young has two daughters who are 27 and 19 years old.

“This is going to be really beneficial towards the healing of all the families, the victims, the survivors, and I’m really hopeful that we’ll be able to move forward,” she said.