The Maine State Police released more than 3,000 pages of documents on Friday about the police response to the Lewiston mass shooting, illuminating heartbreaking details of the crime scenes, a disorganized effort to search for the shooter and exhaustive investigations by police in the following days.
The records — which were requested by the Bangor Daily News and include police reports from numerous agencies, dispatch logs, evidence lists, after-action reviews, and many other documents — offer the most in-depth account by officers who responded to the state’s deadliest mass shooting. Many facts of the shooting and manhunt have emerged through an independent commission.
Robert Card II fatally shot 18 people and injured 13 at Just-in-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston on Oct. 25.
The Maine State Police first released the records online just before 1 p.m. Friday, which the BDN downloaded. The agency then removed access to the website hours later due to “technical difficulties.”
‘Pure chaos’
The records provide previously unreleased details about the response to victims and the search for Card, and showcase the difficulties of communication and organization between a flood of responding officers.
Police got to the bowling alley at 6:59 p.m., soon after the first 911 calls at 6:56 p.m. Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Joseph Tripp was the first from that office to arrive with Lewiston police officers at Just-in-Time Recreation and saw a male suspect with dark hair and a beard run out the back toward the parking lot with what appeared to be a rifle, according to the newly released police reports. Tripp ran inside and broadcasted his description of the person who would turn out to be Card within three minutes.
Within the next eight minutes, dispatch radioed about another active shooter at Schemengees, and police arrived in three minutes. Card had already left in a white car, according to a witness, and multiple people needed urgent medical attention “without many ambulances left to transport them,” Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Jon Guay wrote.
At Just-In-Time Recreation, two people had tried unsuccessfully to disarm Card, according to video footage. But while the people, whose names are redacted, could not get his gun, they were able to knock him off balance, disrupting his focus and likely saving the lives of several people who had been using the bowling lanes, Lewiston Police Lt. Carly Conley said in her report.
Card was in the bowling alley for about a minute and a half.
Officers with the Lewiston Police Department were at a nearby gun range when they learned about the active shooter, first from phone calls and then from radio traffic, according to police reports. They were in plain clothes, and most officers responded to Schemengees, about half a mile away.
“As we approach the parking lot we have no idea if the shooter is still there and if he is waiting for us to arrive,” Lewiston Officer Keith Caouette wrote in his report. “There are people in the parking lot screaming for help.”
It was “pure chaos” as officers entered Schemengees, Caouette said.
As Caouette and other officers searched the building, a man inside yelled for help. Caouette told him to “hang in there and (officers) will be right back to help him,” he wrote. Other victims grabbed at officers’ legs to try to stop them, but Caouette said police had to see if the shooter was still in the building.
After two searches of the building, Caouette returned to the man who had been yelling for help, but he had since died.
Caouette then helped a bleeding man stand. He walked the man outside, but there were no ambulances at the scene because they were “all tied up” at Just-In-Time Recreation, Caouette wrote. Caouette loaded him into a sheriff’s cruiser so a deputy could drive the victim to a hospital.
Caouette sprinted back inside and helped bring the next shooting victim outside. The man was loaded into the bed of a game warden’s pickup and taken to a hospital.
After helping a third victim, he returned inside. But, by then, everyone was dead.
‘Lights and sirens in all directions’
Officers soon shut down local businesses to protect the public. There were eight helicopters and seven planes immediately available to search for Card, according to Chief Pilot Gregory Tirado of the Maine State Police.
But the police who initially responded also reported mass confusion. As Deputy Jason Chaloux ran with his rifle to Schemengees, he saw people “running all over the place to include in and out of the building,” he wrote. “I asked who was in charge and got no answer.”
When Maine State Police Sgt. Greg Roy responded to the command post at the Lewiston Police Department, he described the scene as hectic with “lights and sirens in all directions.”
More than 100 Maine State Police troopers alone responded to Lewiston over the following three-day period, with around 70 troopers responding within the first hour. More than 140 private and commercially owned properties were checked for video surveillance, while 200 people were interviewed over a two-day period.
Police responded on their vacation and even when they did not have vehicles. When Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Gregory Pealatere got word to leave Schmengees for a report of an active shooter at the Walmart Distribution Center in Lewiston, which turned out to be false, “an unknown Lewiston PD officer wearing range clothing jumped in my patrol vehicle with myself and we responded to the location,” he wrote.
Many officers were called to various locations that turned out to not prove fruitful in the search for the shooter. For instance, calls about suspicious vehicles turned out to be unmarked law enforcement cars with out-of-state plates, conducting their own searches for Card, according to the police reports.
There were also missed opportunities to learn more about Card. In one instance, police overseeing the search rebuffed Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Matt Noyes, who had information to share about his employer, friends and family as he had served with Card in the Army Reserve. Noyes was not interviewed until after Card’s body was found, Guay wrote in his police report.
The records also shed light on why police dogs were not called to search for Card once his car was discovered by a Lisbon boat launch. The scene was too contaminated by officers, and the probability was too great that a dog would pick up an unrelated scent and lead officers astray, according to the Maine State Police’s after-action report. Officers were also not prepared to safely track an armed and dangerous man at night.
Despite three searches of the Maine Recycling Corp. in Lisbon Falls, Card’s body was not found in the trailer where he shot himself until 48 hours after the mass shooting.
Multiple reports authored by members of the Lisbon Police Department revealed that officers searched the recycling center three times: first in the early hours of Oct. 26, then in the early hours of Oct. 27, followed by a third search that evening.
The first search focused on the overflow lot where numerous trailers were parked, and where Card’s body was eventually found, according to Lisbon police Detective Richard St. Amant. But that initial search only involved illuminating the trailers with flashlights and a spotlight on the police cruiser he was in, St. Amant said in his report.
“The realization [was] that a complete inspection of every trailer on the lot was not a tactically sound procedure, given our units’ limited manpower and lacking adequate safety/protective gear in relation to the armament the Card suspect was known and rumored to possess,” he said.
At the command post, there was confusion about what parts of the recycling center had already been searched as state police tactical teams did not uniformly track what areas had been searched and cleared, according to the after-action report.
“I was given conflicting information if they were cleared or not,” Roy, the state trooper in charge of the tactical teams responsible for many of the searches, wrote.
‘Love You and enjoy your Life’
Though Card was found dead, the records released by the state police show there was an expansive investigation into the shooting.
Almost 600 pieces of evidence were collected from the bowling alley and bar where Card opened fire, as well as other properties that were searched, including Card’s home in Bowdoin, according to evidence logs kept by the state police’s evidence recovery team.
The evidence included bullet fragments, shell casings, human tissue, cellphones, wallets, socks, shoes and more, according to the logs. Although only one type of shell casing was found at the scenes of the mass shooting, evidence technicians still did ballistic tests. Those tests confirmed Card only used one gun, the Ruger SFAR, which he purchased a little more than three months before the mass shooting.
Investigators also meticulously documented the pieces of evidence they collected from locations associated with Card, including a handwritten note that Card left behind on his home’s counter, which shared his phone passcode. Maine State Police Trooper Nicholas Watson found the note after filling up a bowl of water for a dog he found left outside Card’s house.
“Love You and enjoy your Life,” Card wrote. “Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story I guess. I just wanted to play cornhole with my Hot girlfriend and Be left the F—k alone.”
Card met his ex-girlfriend at a cornhole competition at Schemengee’s, according to a search warrant request.
In the hours, days and weeks after the shootings, police also interviewed victims, witnesses and Card’s family members. One spreadsheet showed how more than 70 people were interviewed by various law enforcement officers, including the FBI, Lewiston Police Department, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
State police detectives were interviewing people who knew Card as recently as May 5, according to a report by Detective Cpl. Reid Bond.
The evidence points to how many lives were devastated by the shootings. Police found 51 cell phones left behind by patrons at both businesses. The Red Cross noted how they scoured local stores and caused an area-wide shortage of tissues.
