A close friend of the Lewiston mass shooter testified Thursday that he warned his Army Reserve commanders weeks before the incident because of the escalating, threatening behavior he had witnessed.
And when he first heard about the unfolding incident on the evening of October 25, Staff Sgt. Sean Hodgson said he had no doubt his friend, Robert Card II, was involved.
“I just saw a line police cars and ambulances going every which way and she goes, 'There's an active shooter' and knew it was Card," Hodgson, fighting back emotions, told a special commission investigating the mass shooting. "I knew it was him because of the places that she was naming off that were being hit."
Hodgson, an 18-year veteran of the Army Reserves, was testifying on the six-month anniversary of the worst mass shooting in Maine history. Card killed 18 people and injured 13 during shooting sprees at two Lewiston businesses, resulting in a two-day manhunt and regional lockdown that ended when he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Hodgson described his friend as quiet but a hard worker and generous — so much so that he took Hodgson into his Bowdoin home in 2022 when Hodgson was experiencing his own life challenges.
"He would give his own shirt off his back," he said. "He had no qualms if you needed money. You didn't even have to ask for it, if he knew you were having trouble, he would just give it to you."
But Hodgson told commission members that his friend's demeanor began to change around July of 2022. That's when he mentioned hearing co-workers, fellow reservists and total strangers talking about him behind his back, including calling him a pedophile. Card had been suffering from hearing loss for years. But according to Hodgson, Card began talking about hearing those comments from co-workers and strangers even before he received hearing aides that allowed him to pick up snippets of distant conversations.
Hodgson said Card never lied to him so he initially believed him. But last July, Hodgson's superiors with the 304th Infantry Regiment out of Saco ordered Card to go to an Army hospital in New York, for evaluation after an altercation before a training mission at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
The incident happened after Card accused hotel staff, strangers and his fellow reservist of calling him a pedophile. New York State Police responded and accompanied a group of reservists who took Card to the hospital for evaluation.
It was Hodgson who drove down to New York from Maine to pick up Card after his two-week stint at a different psychiatric facility. Hodgson said Card spent much of the six-hour drive back ranting about hospital staff, other patients and reservists.
“He was more aggravated, more upset, very angry,” Hodgson said. “And it grew and grew. It increased after the hospitalization. More frequently that he would hear (voices) in random places.”
Events culminated in September after a late-night at Oxford Casino, where Card once again suggested strangers were talking about him and made more threatening statements against fellow reservists. And Hodgson said when he urged his friend to be careful, Card punched him in the face while they were driving.
Later that night or the next day, Hodgson called and sent a text to his Reserve leaders urging them to change the security code at the Saco facility and to be prepared if Card shows up for that weekend's training. He then added, "I believe he is going to snap and do a mass shooting."
Asked by one of the commissioners on Thursday why he used that phrase, Hodgson said, "The way he was behaving was very threatening. He was escalating. It was just the totality of circumstances, the events leading all the way up to that moment where I was pretty convinced he was going to use harm."
Since the commission began meeting late last year, members have heard oftentimes conflicting accounts between police and Army officials about how how they responded to concerns about Card's deteriorating mental health and his access to guns. Army officials have laid much of the blame on local sheriff's deputies for not taking Card into custody. Police, meanwhile, have said Army officials downplayed the severity of the threat while promising to get the reservist into mental health treatment.
The commission has previously heard extensive testimony from two of those Reserve leaders, Captain Jeremy Reamer and 1st Sgt. Kelvin Mote. Both said they communicated those concerns to the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office and asked the agency to conduct a "welfare check" on Card, with the expectation that police might seek to use Maine's "yellow flag" law to force Card to temporarily relinquish his guns.
But records and transcripts released publicly show the pair also appeared to question Hodgson's credibility. And in testimony last month, Reamer acknowledged that he did not ensure that Card complete mental health treatment or ensure he didn't have access to private firearms.
A sheriff's deputy, Sgt. Aaron Skolfield, tried to contact Card but he never answered the door. Skolfield previously testified that he did not believe he had legal grounds to forcefully enter Card's house to take him into "protective custody," which is a first step in Maine's "yellow flag" gun confiscation process for dangerous individuals. But in its interim report released last month, the commission faulted Skolfield for relying on assurances from Card's family members that they would attempt to secure his guns.
Earlier Thursday, another senior Reserve officer, Master Sgt. Edward Yurek, testified Thursday that he was surprised when Robert Card's brother, Ryan, called to tell him that Robert had been released the New York psychiatric hospital within two weeks.
"We thought that he was going to be there for a very long time and when Ryan Card called and said he was out, I said, 'That can't be true,'" Yurek said. He then expressed surprised that "the hospital released him the same way that they got him" after Ryan Card said his brother was in the same mental state.
But Yurek, who works at the Brunswick Police Department, also said repeatedly on Thursday that he did not believe Robert Card posed a threat to the Army base in Saco or to others weeks later despite seeing a police bulletin calling the reservist "armed and dangerous."
Yurek said he thought the bulletin was based on Ryan Card's "exaggerated" impressions of what his brother might do. In fact, the bulletin was based on the reports that Hodgson had made to Reamer and Mote, the two leaders of his Reserve unit. But Yurek said he was never informed of that history.
"I was drawing upon my personal experience with Sgt. Card," Yurek said. "He was not a threat to me. He was separated from reality, but he was not a threat."
The commission also heard from Cara Cookson, who directs the victim services program with the Maine Attorney General's Office. Cookson's office as well as victims' advocates from other agencies, such as the FBI, were called upon immediately after the shooting to work directly with survivors as well as family members of victims.
That work can involve assisting with funeral arrangements, navigating the criminal justice system, helping apply for financial assistance and connecting people with mental health services. One aspect of that support system — for victims, surviving family and the broader community — is the Maine Resiliency Center that Cookson says was set up within weeks of the shooting and that remains open today.
But Cookson told commissioners that healing takes many forms.
"And some of the best tools, connection, stories, laughter, breaking bread, singing, crafting, board games and physical activity, can be pursued without advocates involved," Cookson said. "We hope people will use these tools, too."
The Maine Resiliency Center was slated to hold a remembrance ceremony at Simard-Payne Memorial Park in Lewiston on Thursday evening to mark the six-month anniversary of the shooting.
