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The Governor's Children's Cabinet convened a special meeting Tuesday to discuss efforts to provide resources to students and teachers coping with the state's worst mass shooting.
Over 120 handbell ringers from 16 choirs across Maine and wider New England met Saturday for Maine Spring Ring at Auburn Middle School. The event, held every other year, split donations between costs and the One Lewiston Resilience Fund which honors victims of the Oct. 25 mass shooting in its support for their families and the creation of a memorial.
Daryl Reed, the soldier whom Robert Card threatened during the unit's annual training, and Sean Hodgson, who was Card's closest friend, spoke for the first time in front of the commission investigating the mass shooting.
But the full Legislature never took up a proposal for a red flag law that would give families, in addition to law enforcement, the ability to restrict a person's access to weapons without a mental health evaluation.
The bill now requires second votes in both the House and Senate before it heads to Gov. Mills' desk.
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Heidi Patrie, right, gives a hug to a friend at a vigil Saturday in honor of the victims of the mass shootings in Lewiston. Patrie said her kids are very close with Joshua Seal’s children. Seal, who was a husband, father and a well-known American Sign Language interpreter in Maine, was one of the 18 people who lost their lives Wednesday. Brianna Soukup/Press Herald
Bank of America Vice President Kevin Cote started training for the Boston Marathon 10 weeks ago and hopes to raise $5,000 for the Bath-based Pine Tree Society.
House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross requires Reps. Michael Lemelin and Shelley Rudnicki to read a formal apology on the House floor before restoring their right to speak during floor debates.
And the state's former chief medical examiner said his office knew who the victims were on the night of the shooting, but Maine State Police told his office not to share the information.
The U.S. Army reservist who killed 18 people in Lewiston in October had been exposed to 'thousands of low-level blasts' during years of grenade training, and the damage has been linked to mental health and behavioral changes he exhibited before the shooting.
In approving the creation of the Maine Mass Violence Care Fund, the Legislature would demonstrate its unequivocal commitment to supporting the long-term health, well-being and longevity of Mainers whose lives have been shattered by the epidemic of mass gun violence.
Experts who reviewed a copy of the report shared with the Press Herald say estimating Robert Card's time of death with any confidence is difficult or impossible.
Supporters say the bill would provide an important path forward for families seeking to restrict a loved one's access to firearms without stigmatizing mental illness, while opponents raise concerns about due process and Second Amendment rights.
Members of several groups, including the U.S. Army Reserve, Maine State Police and the medical examiner's office, will testify at public hearings on April 4 and April 11 at the University of Maine in Augusta.
Organizers hoped to raise $20,000 or more from the event for the new fund that is expected to help cover the cost of an Oct. 25 memorial and related events.
The Judiciary Committee also will soon take up a last-minute bill that would put in place 'an improved crisis intervention order' for restricting access to firearms when people are deemed to be a threat.
The interim findings of the state-appointed panel focused largely on 'abdication of law enforcement's duty,' but preventing future killings will require more than laying blame.
Democratic lawmakers meet in private with a federal firearms regulator to discuss existing rules in preparation for a key committee meeting Thursday. Republicans criticize the move, pass up an offer to do the same and say the discussions should have been public.
They point to the state commission's finding that faulted the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office for not using existing laws to seize guns from the shooter before he killed 18 people in Lewiston.
Sgt. Aaron Skolfield, who has faced scrutiny for failing to properly heed warnings about Robert Card's declining mental health, filed paperwork to run for Sagadahoc County sheriff in February.
The interim report, which also faults the Army, calls a Sagadahoc County deputy's failure to take Robert Card into custody in mid-September 'an abdication of law enforcement's responsibility."'
The Legislature's Judiciary Committee holds a work session on a series of bills that include a proposal from Gov. Janet Mills to expand background checks and update the state's yellow flag law.
But Maine defenders of traditional gun rights also turned out in force at last week's hearings, and it's unclear if the support to enact changes will be sustained.
An Army spokesperson on Thursday called the lab findings regarding Robert Card 'concerning' and said they 'underscore the Army’s need to do all it can to protect Soldiers against blast-induced injury.'
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services will receive $2,048,452 through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Emergency Response Grant program, according to a news release.
Robert Card was 'exposed to thousands of low-level blasts' during Army grenade training in New York state, and the injury to his brain likely played a role in his behavioral changes before the mass shooting, researchers say.
Dozens of people testified for and against a pair of bills that include expanding background check requirements to advertised private firearms sales and a 72-hour waiting period on purchases.
Robert Card was a longtime reservist for a Saco-based unit. His colleagues became increasingly concerned about his behavior last year but took few steps to follow up on his mental health treatment.
Public hearings begin on gun safety bills that would ban bump stocks, institute a 72-hour waiting period for firearm purchases and expand background checks to advertised private sales.
A 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases, a ban on bump stocks and a network of mental health crisis centers are among the measures Democratic leaders in the Legislature have proposed in response to the mass shooting in Lewiston.
One bill to be unveiled Wednesday calls for a 72-hour waiting period on firearm purchases, a measure that has previously been defeated by the Democratic controlled Legislature.
Personnel records released Monday show that Robert Card continued to get stellar evaluations from his superiors – even after his family began noticing paranoid behavior.
A partisan fight over the hearing process for Gov. Janet Mills' proposal to expand background checks on firearm sales and increase access to crisis mental health care suggests a bipartisan compromise may be elusive even after the mass shooting.
Robert Card's erratic behavior had already estranged him from his family and had raised concerns among his colleagues in the Army Reserve before he spent 2 weeks in a psychiatric hospital last summer, new footage released by the New York State Police shows.
With most of Maine's fire departments and emergency medical services responding to potentially violent situations, many of Maine's non-law enforcement first responders are investing in ballistic personal protective equipment. Many of those who aren't investing in the equipment would like to.
The Maine Council of Churches and Episcopal Diocese of Maine this weekend are encouraging all faith traditions to pray for and promote ways to reduce gun violence.
In a 15-minute video from July released by New York State Police, Robert Card repeatedly tells officers that people are calling him a pedophile everywhere he goes and warns that he's 'capable' of doing something about it.
Maine State Police also testified that Card bought the rifle used in the shooting just days before he was in New York to train with his U.S. Army Reserve unit and ended up hospitalized at a psychiatric facility.
The $71 million supplemental proposal also includes previously announced funding for housing and homelessness, child welfare and safety, and to address the opioid crisis.
The authorization comes after the commission's executive director says subpoena power is actively needed, although it's unclear if the commission will use the new law immediately.
The exhibit honoring Peyton Brewer-Ross at the Art:Works on Main gallery will run though February and will potentially spotlight other victims of the Lewiston mass shooting.
Before the tragic events of Oct. 25, the process to take guns away from those who pose a threat had been used infrequently. Some say reforms could make the law stronger.
The fourth hearing by the commission investigating the shooting focuses largely on the struggle to quickly organize a unified search for the killer in the face of dozens of false tips and red herrings.
The emergency measure cleared the House of Representatives and the Senate Thursday morning, and now faces procedural votes before going to the governor for signature.
The first-of-its kind training will be supplemented by increased security in the Burton Cross Office building next to the State House and a new mobile phone app to send alerts about threats in the Capitol complex.
Maine's deadly force review panel reiterated its longstanding call for improved mental health resources and recommended strengthening the state's protective custody and yellow flag laws.
The governor's office said Republicans mischaracterized the background check proposal and incorrectly stoked fear that it would lead to a registry of firearm owners.
That question was a key moment in a hearing last week before the governor's commission investigating the mass shooting. Police say that even though Robert Card had threatened to commit a mass shooting, it wasn't enough to bring him into custody.
Gov. Janet Mills' proposal to require background checks for some private firearm sales gives new momentum to an idea that has been defeated multiple times. But political analysts say proponents still will have to overcome Maine's tradition of hunting and gun ownership.
The Judiciary Committee added some limits, such as a time period for the authorization, but ultimately agreed the measure was necessary and will send it to the full Legislature for consideration.
Anne Jordan tells lawmakers that subpoena power is needed, testifying that the commission has run into situations where people have refused to appear or have not been willing to produce records.
She plans to submit her budget and policy priorities to lawmakers in writing and use her televised address Tuesday night to talk about 'a period of extraordinary challenge for our state,' including the Lewiston shooting and a series of devastating storms.
Everytown for Gun Safety is joining with Moms Demand Action and a Maine state senator to push for significant reforms in Maine to prevent more violence like the mass shooting in Lewiston.
Five members of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office tell the commission investigating the mass shooting that they had limited options given that Robert Card hadn't committed a crime.
A spokesman for the Maine Department of Fisheries and Wildlife said a class about cleaning and maintaining an AR firearm was abruptly canceled after complaints that it was inappropriate in the wake of the mass shooting in Lewiston.
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Where to find help and mental health services in Maine
