AUGUSTA — Speaking publicly for the first time about a state commission’s findings regarding the Lewiston mass shooting, Gov. Janet Mills said that individual errors, not failed policies, were responsible for the massacre.

“At its core, this tragedy was caused by a colossal failure of human judgment by several people, on several occasions, a profound negligence that, as the commission rightly stated, was an abdication of responsibility,” Mills said. “As I have said in the past, understanding the facts and circumstances of this tragedy is a cornerstone of healing. Another cornerstone is accountability.”

Mills – who called the commission report “disturbing and painful to read” – said the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office and Army Reserves missed many opportunities to intervene, despite repeated attempts by Robert Card’s family to get help as his mental health deteriorated. The commission found that the sheriff’s office had probable cause to take Card into protective custody and to start a petition to confiscate his firearms, but failed to do so.

“In this case, we have to acknowledge that the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office, Sgt. (Aaron) Skolfield in particular, could have and should have done more,” Mills said.

Skolfield, who tried twice to check on Card before the shooting but never met him, is running for sheriff against incumbent Joel Merry in November. Mills urged voters in Sagadahoc County to read the commission’s findings before voting. When pressed by reporters, she stopped short of recommending any vote for or against either candidate but strongly hinted that she believes Skolfield is unfit for the job.

“He’s the one mentioned in the report,” she said.

During a phone call Friday afternoon, Skolfield said Mills’ words were unfair.

“It’s clear that this commission was politically motivated rather than fact finding,” he said. “The Democratic governor is supporting a Democratic sheriff, while the commission ignores key facts. There’s people that support me all throughout the county, and they know me for who I am.”

‘A VERY EFFECTIVE LAW’

In a letter sent Friday to U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Mills said she approves of steps the Army Reserve recently announced it will take, including changing how it manages the cases of reservists in the mental health system. She also announced her support for forthcoming legislation from Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King that would authorize the military to use state crisis prevention programs like Maine’s Extreme Risk Protection Order, or yellow flag law.

A spokesperson for Collins’ office said Friday that the senator intends to introduce that bill on Sept. 16.

Yet when asked by reporters about implementing more powerful gun laws in Maine, such as a red flag law or an assault weapons ban, Mills said she didn’t see a need. Instead, she staunchly defended the efficacy of the current yellow flag law, which Skolfield, Merry and other law enforcement agencies have criticized as cumbersome.

“Maine’s extreme risk protection order law works,” she said, pointing out that the statute has been used more than once a day by Maine police since the shooting. “I really think we have a very effective law in place right now.”

But the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, which has been advocating for a red flag law that would allow family members, not just law enforcement, to seek a protection order, issued a statement calling Maine’s gun laws “weak.”

“The Lewiston report makes clear that the current process for intervening when someone in crisis has access to dangerous and deadly weapons is ineffective, restrictive, and disempowers Maine families to get help for their loved ones,” Executive Director Nacole Palmer said. “Our families and communities deserve better than Maine’s weak yellow flag law.”

If Maine had a red flag law last October, it’s possible the shooting could have been avoided, they said.

The commission’s final report focused especially on steps that the gunman’s Army Reserve commanders and the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office did not take after learning of violent threats he had made against his unit’s Saco base.

The report did not recommend specific policy changes that might prevent future shootings. Nor did it offer a critical analysis of a New York doctor’s claim that she had no choice but to release the shooter from a psychiatric hospital last August because he did not meet the criteria for involuntary commitment.

Mills, who said the commission provided a thorough and comprehensive account of the months leading up to the shooting, said she does not feel there is a lack of clarity about Card’s treatment and release in New York.

She said she agrees with the Army’s call for improved information sharing between the Army and the hospitals it works with and that “robustly funding” Maine’s mental health infrastructure remains one of her goals.

The governor has highlighted several law and budget initiatives aimed at improving public safety and mental health resources that she signed after the shooting, including improvements to Maine’s yellow flag law that make it easier to bring uncooperative subjects into protective custody.

STATE POLICE REFLECT

Hours before Mills was scheduled to speak, Maine State Police unveiled an after-action report analyzing how the agency responded to the attack and how it can do better in handling future crises.

The 33-page report highlighted many of the same areas of improvement state police leaders have already discussed at public hearings held before the state commission earlier this year, including the need for more interdepartmental training on the incident command system organizational structure police use during large operations.

Maine State Police: Lewiston Active Shooter Tragedy by Maine Trust For Local News on Scribd

It outlines how its officers responded to the mass shooting, highlighting what went well and recommendations for changes. It details six primary recommendations that center largely on training and coordination with other agencies. They are:

• Incorporate additional active shooting training in order to have a more coordinated response during mass casualty incidents.

• Develop investigative crime scene protocols with federal partners and train hospitals on evidence collection.

• Incorporate advanced incident command system training for all state police personnel and conduct regular tabletop and full-scale exercises with state police leadership and partner agencies.

• Limit self-deployment by law enforcement personnel when incident command is established and active.

• Review and evaluate policies for responding to incidents involving people who are deaf, hard of hearing or non-English speaking.

• Train managers on psychological first aid so they can identify signs of psychological trauma in employees and make referrals for treatment.

The report also concludes that there were many tactics state police did well, including establishing a command within an hour that coordinated 29 formal tactical missions and managed resources for the 48-hour manhunt. Tactical resources followed leads in three towns covering more than 300 square miles, prioritizing locations with the highest risk to the public, according to the report.

“This all occurred without any other citizens or officers being injured,” the report said.

But self-deployment of tactical teams in Lewiston that did not report to command “created an uncontrolled influx of resources causing serious safety issues and duplication of work,” according to the report. Tactical command should have required representatives from each team to remain in the area to allow for better coordination and communication, the report said.

Multiple searches of Maine Recycling, where the gunman’s body was eventually found, also highlighted the need for real time mapping software, according to the report.

State police also concluded that the agency needs better coordination with chaplains and the attorney general’s office on family notification. In some cases, individuals were notified of the death of a loved one “more than one way on more than one occasion,” according to the report.

The agency also could have coordinated more access and availability for people who required translation services to communicate, the report said. Many family members of the deaf victims struggled to get access to information in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Mills said she fully agrees with and supports the findings in the state police after-action report. As part of her budget request to the Legislature in January, Mills will ask lawmakers to approve funding to allow state police to fully implement the recommendations.

This story is part of an ongoing collaboration with FRONTLINE (PBS) and Maine Public that includes an upcoming documentary. It is supported through FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

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