Saco police officers kept a close eye on a local Army Reserve Center in the hours after Robert Card killed 18 people and wounded 13 others in Lewiston.
A police officer guards the road to a recycling facility where the body of Robert Card, the suspect in the Lewiston mass shootings, was found on Oct. 27, in Lisbon. Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press
Card had trained at the center and during the summer had threatened to shoot it up, something fellow reservists reported to superiors at the time. As police searched for Card in Lewiston, Lisbon and Bowdoin after the shootings, Saco officers staking out the center were ready in case he showed up there, according to newly released records.
Officers were on scene at the center on Franklin Street from about 10 p.m. until midnight on Oct. 25, the night of the shootings, according to a police dispatch log released to the Press Herald on Monday in response to a public records request.
The dispatch log stated that “subject has ties to the armory//unit staying on scene.” A later entry says officer “will be staying scene at the Armory in an unmarked vehicle.”
Officers cleared the center around midnight, but returned the following morning with a reserve member to check the location.
Saco police said the patrols did not turn up any new information or leads on Card, who at the same time was the subject of a massive manhunt in central Maine following the shootings at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant.
Police found Card’s car abandoned in Lisbon the night of the shooting, although the manhunt continued until they found his body nearby about 48 hours later.
Card, a 40-year-old U.S. Army reservist, had previously made threats to “shoot up” the Saco Army Reserve Center, according to a September police report, and his friends, family and colleagues at the Army Reserve Center had said they were concerned about his mental health.
The dispatch log released Monday further highlights the steps police had to take the night of the shootings to protect people and places Card had previously threatened, or who were believed to be possible targets. A timeline released by Maine State Police last week showed how police also were concerned about Card’s ex-girlfriend and worked to track her down in Auburn the night of the shootings.
Press Herald staff writer Emily Allen contributed to this report.
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