Sgt. 1st Class Robert Card, the Army reservist who went on a shooting rampage in Lewiston, Maine, in October, seemed like a textbook case of someone who needed help. He was hearing voices, became increasingly paranoid, threatened people, and owned guns.
Now, months after his deadly mass shooting, Army officials have taken significant punitive measures against three officials in his chain of command, barring them from advancement — a move that’s just a hair away from legal action and effectively encourages those officials to leave the service without the Army outright forcing it.
“There were also a series of failures by unit leadership,” Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, the chief of the Army Reserve, told reporters Monday, adding that officers in Card’s unit were “derelict in their duties.”
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Army Reserve officials stopped short of publicly naming the officers punished since they were not held legally liable for mishandling Card’s mental health care treatment.
The Army released the findings this week of its investigation into the months leading up to Card’s killing spree in late October 2023, in which 18 people were killed and 13 injured at a bowling alley and restaurant. The shootings sparked a sprawling manhunt. Two days later, Card was found dead in a tractor-trailer near a recycling center from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Investigators found that…
