Robert Card, who killed dozens on October 25, has revealed more details. A series of emails and text messages have been released in the aftermath of this tragedy. They paint a disturbing image of the gunman’s mental decline leading up to the shooting.
Fox News obtained documents from the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office that showed a series of communications between members of a shooter’s Army Reserve Unit. Details reveal deep fears and concerns about the mental health of the shooter.
On Sept. 15, a member of Robert Card’s Army Reserve unit sent out a series of texts saying that “I believe (Card) is going to snap and commit a mass murder,” along with a warning for anyone to be armed in case they see him.
It was just over five weeks until the deadly mass shooting that took place in Maine on October 25, in which Card shot and killed 18 people, injuring 13 others.
This text was released this week by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office, along with letters from Card’s colleagues and friends expressing their concern about his rapidly declining mental health.
“Change your passcode at the gate of the unit and be ready to fire if the SFDC card arrives.” The sender, identified as “Ssg. Hodgson”, said to Cpl. Kelvin Mote is an Ellsworth Police Officer. “I think he is messed up in the head.” And threaten the unit… and other places.”
Ellsworth Police Officer Corporal Kelvin Motte sent an email detailing the shooter’s paranoia and erratic behavior. He said that the shooter had been hearing “voices calling him a child molester, saying he’s got a small d—” and other insults.
The mental state of the shooter became so bad that auditory hallucinations escalated into physical confrontations between him and his colleagues.
He accused him of being a pedophile on July 15 at West Point “and told them he’d take care of it”, Cpl. Mote wrote. “Card shoved his (long-time friend), got in his face, and told him not to call him a pedophile.”
According to Cpl. Mote.
Card refused to answer the door to his room when the couple tried to contact him.
After being discharged, he was admitted for two weeks to the Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital located in Katonah (New York). After being discharged, he did not seek any additional treatment.
Card was the target of a massive manhunt after the shootings. Two days later, Card was found dead of a gunshot wound that he had inflicted himself.
The incident brought up the usual gun control debates and mass shootings. Maine has no red flag laws but it does have “yellow-flag” laws that allow firearms to be taken away from people who are perceived as threats. Gun control advocates argue that the laws are too weak to stop mass shootings. In these provisions, family members who are concerned must alert the police about the problem. A medical diagnosis of the threat must then be made. The judge will then decide whether or not to remove the firearms.
In this case and many others, mass shooters were still able to commit their atrocities in states that had stricter red-flag laws. This shows how these laws are not effective in curbing this type of violence.
