Robert Card’s sister-in-law said relatives contacted his Army Reserve unit and police after he began hearing voices.
www.nbcnews.com
Oct. 26, 2023, 2:25 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 26, 2023, 5:15 PM EDT
By
Melissa Chan,
Ken Dilanian and
Tom Winter
The family of the Army reservist accused of
fatally shooting more than a dozen people in Lewiston, Maine, alerted police and military officials that he was experiencing an “acute” mental health episode before the Wednesday night massacre, his sister-in-law said.
Robert Card, 40, a firearms instructor and longtime member of the Army Reserve, began to hear voices that were saying “horrible” things about him a couple of months ago when he was fitted for high-powered hearing aids, said Katie Card, who is married to his brother.
“He was picking up voices that he had never heard,” she told NBC News. “His mind was twisting them around. He was humiliated by the things that he thought were being said.”
Katie Card said the family did their best to reassure Robert Card that the comments were not real, including by verifying with some of the people he claimed had made the remarks.
But, she said, “it turned into a manic belief.”
“He was just very set in his belief that everyone was against him all of a sudden,” she said.
His sister-in-law said the family reached out to police and his Army Reserve base as they “got increasingly concerned" in the last couple of months.
“We just reached out to make sure everyone was on the same page, because he is someone who does gun training,” she said. “We were concerned about his mental state. That’s all.”
Her husband went “back and forth” with the Army, Katie Card said.
<snip>
Two senior law enforcement officials said Card’s unit commanders sent him to receive psychiatric treatment this summer after they became concerned about threats he made to the base and his claims that he was hearing voices.
Card spent about two weeks undergoing inpatient psychiatric treatment and was released, the officials said. It is not clear what further action was taken.
A Defense Department official said Card’s unit requested that law enforcement be contacted in July after he began behaving erratically. New York State Police responded and took him to Keller Army Community Hospital at the U.S. Military Academy for medical evaluation.
In a statement, Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee said there are no records to indicate that Card had instructed or participated in any training while his unit supported West Point summer training in July.
The Army did not train him as a firearms instructor, nor did he serve in that capacity for the Army, Dubee said.
<snip>
Katie Card declined to discuss whether the family tried to restrict his access to firearms.
As officers headed to Maine to help with the manhunt, a note was found at Robert Card's home during a search with a warrant, four senior law enforcement officials said. Investigators are trying to determine the meaning of the note and how it could guide their investigation, the officials said.
The weapon believed to have been used in the attack was a sniper rifle with .308 caliber bullets, and it was purchased legally this year, officials said.
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More at link. ~Summer
www.yahoo.com
, keeping the families in my prayers and hoping they'll catch this mf asap.
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you now.
