The Department of Homeland Security released a new report this week that suggests the gunman who shot and killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, last October could have been stalking his ex-coworkers at the Maine Recycling Corp. in Lisbon to ambush them, according to the Portland Press Herald.
While there were cameras at the main facility, the report revealed that there were none at the overflow lot in Lisbon, where Robert Card's body was found in a trailer 48 hours after the mass shooting at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grille. If he had been stalking his former colleagues, reports the Herald, a source told investigators Card "would have known" there were no cameras in that location.
The report went on to say that the source, whose name was redacted from the report, said he believed Card "specifically chose the tractor-trailer where his body was found to set up an ambush," which was near where employees were supposed to park, according to the Herald.
Last week, a final report released by a special commission created to investigate the attacks found that both the Army Reserve and local police missed out on opportunities to intervene in a gunman's psychiatric crisis and seize weapons from the spiraling reservist.
The independent commission, which held more than a dozen public meetings, heard from scores of witnesses and reviewed thousands of pages of evidence, cited shortcomings by police for failing to take the gunman’s weapons and by the Army Reserve for failing to provide proper care for the 40-year-old leading up to the violence.
The 215-page report reiterated the panel's conclusion from an interim finding in March that law enforcement had authority under the state’s yellow flag law to seize the shooter’s guns and put him in protective custody weeks before the shootings. But it also said the Army Reserve should have done more, as well, to ensure care and deal with the weapons.
The commission began its work a month after the mass shooting by Card, an Army reservist who killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston and then took his own life. Over nine months, there has been emotional testimony from family members and survivors of the shooting, law enforcement officials and U.S. Army Reserve personnel, and others.
