Families of Lewiston shooting victims seek Pentagon probe after ‘conflicting’ investigations

AUGUSTA, Maine — Attorneys representing families of Lewiston mass shooting victims asked Maine’s congressional delegation Wednesday to request the Department of Defense’s inspector general review “conflicting conclusions” reached in two military reviews of the rampage.

Attorneys Travis Brennan and Ben Gideon, who are representing roughly 90 clients affected by the Oct. 25 shooting, sent a letter to the four-member delegation a day after the Army Reserve and Army’s inspector general released the results of investigations into the rampage in which Robert Card II, a 40-year-old reservist from Bowdoin, killed 18 and injured 13 at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar in Maine’s deadliest mass shooting on record.

The partially-redacted Army Reserve report said three unidentified officers received discipline as part of “a series of failures by unit leadership.” It also cited failures in leadership and communication between an Army hospital and a civilian psychiatric hospital in New York where Card was treated last summer and other procedural failures.

Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, chief of the Army Reserve, and Lt. Donna Martin, the Army’s inspector general, signaled their reviews were thorough, but the attorneys for Lewiston victims described the “narrow scope” of each report and “conflicting conclusions” as “troubling” and worthy of additional investigation by Department of Defense Inspector General Robert Storch.

Wednesday’s letter illustrated how families and survivors tied to the Lewiston shooting still are not satisfied with the multi-faceted probes into the rampage that put much of Maine on edge after Card fled and was eventually found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound two days later.

The attorneys added in their letter to Maine’s congressional delegation the issues identified to date with the Army Reserve likely extend to other branches of the military, and they noted then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis quickly requested a Pentagon inspector general review after a former Air Force member killed 26 and injured more than 20 others at a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church in 2017.

In a brief statement, the Maine congressional delegation said it is focused on finding and addressing all factors that contributed to the shooting and is reviewing the families’ requests.

Namely, the Lewiston victim attorneys said they are concerned the reviews from the Army’s inspector general and Army Reserve were in conflict with one another.

Those alleged conflicts include the Army Reserve’s investigation finding Card should have been kept on active-duty status to receive additional follow-up care after his Aug. 3 release from a 19-day psychiatric hospitalization in New York, but then the Army’s inspector general finding there was little the reserve could have done to prevent the shooting since Card was a civilian not on active status at the time of his rampage.

The Army Reserve report mentions a new detail about Card falling from the roof of his home in 2008 and breaking his neck, “possibly leading to a traumatic brain injury.” Daniels said emphatically there was no tie between his brain injury and his military service, though the report notes Walter Reed National Military Medical Center will provide results of an analysis and autopsy along with reviewing the hospital discharge. Card had worked as a grenade instructor.

The attorneys pushed back on what Daniels mentioned by arguing the Pentagon’s inspector general should scrutinize how Card’s military service and exposure to grenade blasts contributed to or caused his mental health issues.

The legal team has not filed a lawsuit in connection with the Lewiston shooting, though Brennan and Gideon indicated Tuesday litigation could come in the future.