Maine shooter’s sister ID’d him as gunman after killings

Robert Card’s sister called Lewiston police after two mass shootings in the Maine city and said her brother was the man seen in photos holding a long rifle, according to police documents released Tuesday.

Card, 40, killed 18 people and wounded others when he opened fire at Schemengees Bar and Grille and Just In Time bowling alley in Lewiston on Oct. 25.

The shootings set off a massive manhunt with hundreds of law enforcement personnel before Card was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound two days later.

An arrest warrant affidavit for Card that was among the documents released by state officials Tuesday also contain an interview with someone who knows Card who said that he had been delusional since a breakup in February.

That person, whose name is also redacted, “said that Robert believed there was a conspiracy against him and people were accusing him of being a pedophile,” according to the affidavit.

That person told a detective that Card believed Schemengees Bar and Grille and the bowling alley were among several businesses “broadcasting that Robert was a pedophile,” and that Card believed his family was part of the conspiracy, according to the affidavit.

Card had guns, that person said, and had lost a significant amount of weight, the document says.

Card’s brother told a detective that Card has been in a relationship that had ended, and that Card met that person at a cornhole competition at Schemengees, the affidavit says.

Card’s brother “said that ever since the relationship ended Robert started wearing hearing aids and had been saying crazy things,” it says.

A motive in the shooting remains unclear. Card was a firearms instructor and an Army reservist who had been sent for in-patient mental health treatment in the past, officials have said.

In July Army leadership took Card to a treatment facility, the Army said. On Aug. 3, Card returned home to Maine and it was directed that he not have weapons, not participate in live-fire training, and declared him to be “non-deployable,” Army spokesperson Bryce S. Dubee said.

Army medical staff made “multiple attempts” to contact card, the military said. In September, after concerns from his unit, the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office conducted a health and welfare check, it said.

The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office has said that they conducted that check but no one answered the door, and that they contacted Card’s unit commander who said he no longer had any weapons from the reserve unit.

“The Army is actively conducting an internal investigation into this matter,” Dubee said.

The first calls about a shooting on Oct. 25 came in at 6:56 p.m. from Schemengees, the arrest warrant affidavit says.

Calls about more shots fired, this time at Just in Time — which is also known as Sparetime — came in at 7:08 p.m. The businesses are around 4 miles apart.

The sheriff’s office distributed photos showing a gunman with an assault-style rifle walking into the bar.

At 7:26 p.m., a woman called Lewiston police and said her brother was that man, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.