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 unit-level leadership failed at numerous points to properly follow up on Card's mental health care after he was transferred from Army treatment to civilian care at the Four Winds Hospital, a mental health care facility, in Westchester County, New York.
Specifically, Daniels said that "as Sgt. Card's leadership became aware of escalating issues through contact with fellow soldiers and family members, they failed to submit a Commander's Critical Information Requirements report to higher-level commanders or contact the Army Insider Threat Hub."
She also noted that, after Card was released from Four Winds Hospital - a civilian medical facility that Daniels said was more equipped to care for his mental condition -- "his unit did not conduct a required 'Line of Duty' investigation to properly document his condition and hospital stay ... nor did the unit initiate disability processing."
"There's a lot of administrative things that did not take place ... that they should have known how to do," Daniels said.
In July 2023, Card's unit was running machine gun training, during which other soldiers in his unit saw that his mental health had deteriorated to a concerning level. Card reported hearing voices, telling soldiers that strangers were "talking about him," and he became paranoid that people were spreading rumors he was a pedophile and gay.
He was admitted to Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point, where officials found his condition to be so severe they ordered his hospitalization at Four Winds, which was seen as being better equipped to handle a case as severe as Card's.
Four Winds found Card's symptoms were psychosis, aggression, homicidal ideations, paranoia and hallucinations, according to an Army summary of his discharge records -- but he never received a formal diagnosis beyond a "brief psychotic disorder."
At one point, Four Winds submitted an application for "court-ordered retention," the investigation found, but Card's court hearing was canceled just before his release.
"That was a responsibility or a decision made there at Four Winds," Daniels said when asked about it Monday. She stressed that the "Army did not cancel the court hearing."
Card was discharged from the hospital after 19 days on Aug. 3 -- less than three months before he would commit his murderous rampage.
It's unclear, amid the red flags, why he was discharged, especially without any clear instructions for follow-up care. Army officials said the hospital did not cooperate with its investigation, adding it discharged Card "under questionable circumstances."
Dr. Sarah Klagsbrun, the medical director for the hospital, did not respond to a request for comment.
"I think one of the challenges is the fact that ... behavior health professionals released him and said that he was 'low threat,'" Daniels told reporters.
Part-time soldiers such as Card can be placed on long-term, active-duty orders to continue receiving care on the military's dime, but since the hospital released him, he was effectively cleared to return to duty and civilian life. But his discharge summary, which made numerous references to Card's deteriorating mental health, would have likely armed his unit with enough information to keep him on orders, and possibly find other care for him.
However, his unit did not properly document that discharge record and did not go through procedures to get him into follow-up care.
"Card told providers at Four Winds that he 'decided to quit his job before he ended up killing someone,' that he was 'sleeping 3-4 hours during the day,' he 'had a history of social anxiety' and that 'he usually drinks to loosen up in social situations.' The discharge summary indicated Card had homicidal ideations," the Army's investigation noted.
"The discharge instructions were eventually sent to Keller Army Hospital on 11 August but were not relayed to Sgt. Card's chain of command," Daniels said Monday.
When reservists are not on duty, it's generally difficult for units to keep tabs on them.
"Outside of that duty status, unit commanders have no legal authority to compel soldiers to undergo medical treatment, to execute follow-on care or surrender personally owned weapons, regardless of the circumstances," Daniels said.
Card enlisted into the Army in 2002 as a petroleum supply specialist and was assigned to the Army Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 304th Regiment, a Maine-based unit that runs training for cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, training them on weapons such as grenades, machine guns and rifles. Card had been serving in the unit for 10 years. On the civilian side, he was a truck driver.
There have been concerns over his exposure to head trauma after his autopsy found brain damage.
However, as Army Reserve officials noted, that brain trauma is unlikely to be related to his military duties.
Card had no deployments abroad and never saw combat. While training with weapons can lead to brain injuries, the relatively pedestrian training he oversaw and the low frequency of exposure as a part-time soldier make it unlikely he received significant trauma.
He did fall from his roof in 2008 and broke his neck, according to the Army.
The Army Reserve is reviewing its mental health care policies, while the service as a whole has struggled to articulate when soldiers should be admitted into care and what resources they're entitled to.
"My heart and soul goes out to all those families, the folks that were witnesses to what happened," Daniels said. "We're doing the best that we can in terms of understanding what did transpire and then make changes for the future."
Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the year that Card entered the service.
