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A sheriff in Maine says he despatched an alert to all legislation enforcement businesses within the state final month after studying that an Military reservist had made threats towards his base, a notification that got here weeks earlier than the reservist fatally shot 18 individuals in America’s deadliest mass taking pictures this 12 months.
Sheriff Joel Merry of Sagadahoc County mentioned he despatched the alert someday in September in an effort to seek out the reservist, Robert R. Card II, 40, who was mentioned to have made threats relating to the Military Reserve heart in Saco, Maine. He mentioned he despatched a deputy to Mr. Card’s dwelling however that the deputy didn’t discover him there, prompting the sheriff to ship out the discover.
The revelation is the strongest signal but that legislation enforcement was conscious that Mr. Card was a possible hazard earlier than he carried out a rampage at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston on Wednesday night time.
“The blokes, from what I do know, paid due diligence to this and did try and find Mr. Card they usually couldn’t,” Sheriff Merry mentioned in an interview on Saturday night time.
The Maine Division of Public Security, which had led a two-day manhunt for Mr. Card earlier than he was discovered lifeless in a trailer at a recycling plant on Friday night time, didn’t reply to requests for remark. The Related Press first reported on the sheriff’s alert.
Sheriff Merry declined to remark intimately concerning the reported threats, and it was unclear whether or not every other departments that acquired the sheriff’s alert had tried to find Mr. Card. Contacted on Saturday, two legislation enforcement leaders in Maine mentioned they didn’t recall receiving the alert, although they mentioned they obtain many such notices.
The Military’s public affairs workplace within the Pentagon didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Saturday night time. Mr. Card enlisted within the Reserve in 2002 and was educated as a petroleum provide specialist, whose work concerned transport and storing gasoline; he didn’t serve on any fight deployments.
Earlier on Saturday, the commissioner of the general public security division mentioned that Mr. Card had been paranoid and will have been listening to voices. The commissioner, Michael J. Sauschuck, instructed that Mr. Card had more than likely been to the bowling alley and bar earlier than, and will have carried out the assault partially as a result of he falsely believed that “individuals have been speaking about him.”
Throughout a latest go to to a Nationwide Guard coaching facility outdoors Peekskill, N.Y., Mr. Card had a run-in with officers and was later evaluated at a psychological well being facility, in keeping with a senior legislation enforcement official. Mr. Sauschuck mentioned he had no data to recommend that Mr. Card had ever been forcibly dedicated for psychological well being therapy.
Mr. Card had legally bought a number of weapons, together with some days earlier than the assault, in keeping with Jim Ferguson, the particular agent in command of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ discipline division in Boston.
Following the taking pictures, Mr. Card fled towards the Androscoggin River, the police mentioned, abandoning his automotive a few 15-minute drive from the bar that he had simply attacked. A two-day manhunt adopted, with the state issuing a shelter-in-place order affecting hundreds of residents.
Throughout that point, the police twice searched a recycling plant the place Mr. Card had beforehand labored, close to the place he deserted his automotive. However they didn’t understand {that a} grime lot throughout the road that held dozens of trailers was a part of the property. After they searched the trailers, they discovered him inside one, lifeless from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Shaila Dewan, John Ismay, Serge F. Kovaleski and Amelia Nierenberg contributed reporting. Jack Begg contributed analysis.
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