{"id":10238,"date":"2024-01-25T14:42:32","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T14:42:32","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Sheriff-defends-deputies\u2019-actions-before-Army-reservist-killed-18-in-Maine-53825450\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=10238","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff defends deputies\u2019 actions before Army reservist killed 18 in Maine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"FILE
FILE – People sign “I love you” while gathered at a vigil for the victims of Wednesday’s mass shootings, Oct. 29, 2023, outside the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston, Maine. A commission investigating the shooting that killed 18 people is scheduled to hear from a police agency that had contact with the shooter before he committed the killings. Maine Gov. Janet Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey assembled the commission to review the events that led up to the…<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"A
A sign stating \u201cLewiston Strong!\u201d is displayed outside the Just-In-Time bowling alley, one of the sites of the shootings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Members
Members of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department are questioned, Thursday, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. Seated left to right is Sheriff Joel Merry, Chief Deputy Brett Strout, Sgt. Aaron Skolfield, and Deputy Chad Carleton.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Deputy
Deputy Chad Carleton responds to questioning, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. Carleton is one of the individual officers who handed early complaints about shooter Robert Card.(AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Sagadahoc
Sagadahoc Country Sheriff Joel Merry responds to questioning, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Former
Former Chief Justice Daniel Wathen, chair of an independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, speaks at a hearing Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine. The commission is working to resolve questions from a tragedy that killed 18 people and injured more than a dozen others. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Sagadahoc
Sagadahoc Country Sheriff Joel Merry responds to questioning, Thursday, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Sagadahoc
Sagadahoc Country Sheriff Joel Merry responds to questioning, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Deputy
Deputy Chad Carleton responds to questioning, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. Carleton is one of the individual officers who handed early complaints about shooter Robert Card.(AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Members
Members of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department, seated at table at right, are questioned, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine.(AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

AUGUSTA, Maine\u00a0\u2014 Law enforcement officers spoke Thursday of the difficulty in implementing the state\u2019s yellow flag law that allows guns to be confiscated from someone in a mental health crisis, describing a cumbersome and time-consuming process in testimony to an independent commission that\u2019s investigating a mass shooting in which an Army reservist killed 18 people.<\/p>\n

Deputies said they had been trained about steps to remove guns under the law and that they were limited in what they could do when they received warnings about the reservist\u2019s deteriorating mental health.<\/p>\n

Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry pointed to the difficulty in balancing public safety versus individual rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is always after a tragedy an opportunity to wonder if more could have been done. But that analysis must always take into consideration the limitations placed on law enforcement by the law at the time of the event,\u201d Merry said.<\/p>\n

Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills and state Attorney General Aaron Frey assembled the commission to review the events that led up to the shootings at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston on Oct. 25.<\/p>\n

Leroy Walker, whose son Joe Walker was killed at Schemengees Bar, said victims families have been following the proceedings and hope it yields some changes that can prevent future tragedies.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that they do I think will help us in some way, and we\u2019ll find out information,\u201d Walker said. \u201cA lot of us are sitting back waiting to see what the commission will do for findings, and moving forwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The panel\u2019s second public meeting Thursday focused on Sagahadoc County deputies\u2019 responses to warnings about the deteriorating mental health of the gunman, 40-year-old Bowdoin resident Robert Card. Card\u2019s son and ex-wife expressed concerns he was becoming paranoid and erratic in May and a fellow reservist warned in September that Card was \u201cgoing to snap and do a mass shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n

In between, Card was hospitalized for two weeks for erratic behavior while his Maine-based Army Reserve unit was training in upstate New York and Card was angry at some fellow reservists over his treatment.<\/p>\n

Deputy Chad Carleton, who handled the first report from the family, and Sgt. Aaron Skolfield, who became involved in September, both talked about problems with Maine\u2019s yellow flag law. Carleton described the process as \u201ccumbersome\u201d and said the three requirements for protective custody, medical review and judicial review were time-consuming.<\/p>\n

Skolfield, who visited Card\u2019s home, also had concerns about the yellow flag law but said he did not go to Card\u2019s home for a welfare check intent on invoking the law\u2019s provisions \u2014 even though he acknowledged he was aware of the danger Card could potentially pose.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got guns. He\u2019s got mental health issues. This isn\u2019t a kid who is missing from school. This is a marksman with the military,\u201d Skolfield said.<\/p>\n

Skolfield visited Card\u2019s home but he did not answer the door, and the episode is widely viewed as a missed opportunity to take Card into protective custody, the first step in triggering Maine\u2019s yellow flag law.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for some of the victims\u2019 families have criticized those missed opportunities to prevent Card from committing the shootings. Card was dead two days afterward from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.<\/p>\n

Mills and Frey said Wednesday that they have introduced legislation to grant subpoena authority to the commission as it investigates, a power commissioners have said they will need.<\/p>\n

The legislation \u201cwill ensure that the commission has the tools it needs to fully and effectively discharge its critical mission of determining the facts of the tragedy in Lewiston,\u201d they said in a statement.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the sheriff opened the session by pledging to be transparent and to take a critical look at his department\u2019s response and improvements that can be made to prevent a future tragedy.<\/p>\n

He also defended his officers, saying they were limited in what they could do during a welfare check and relied on family members and Army Reserve officials to respond to mental health worries without escalating the situation. After the attempted welfare check in September, Merry said, deputies believed the matter had been \u201cresolved\u201d and Card posed \u201cno risk to himself or to others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commission meeting Thursday was chaired by Daniel Wathen, former chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Other members include Debra Baeder, the former chief forensic psychologist for the state, and Paula Silsby, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Maine.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AUGUSTA, Maine\u00a0\u2014 Law enforcement officers spoke Thursday of the difficulty in implementing the state\u2019s yellow flag law that allows guns to be confiscated from someone in a mental health crisis, describing a cumbersome and time-consuming process in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":480,"featured_media":10239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=480]Patrick Whittle[\/Author] Associated Press","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,508],"tags":[24,505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[557],"class_list":["post-10238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-police-fire-courts","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/42775227-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10240,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10238\/revisions\/10240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10238"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=10238"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}