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Sheriff denies that tactical team members were drinking before Lewiston manhunt

FILE - Police tape cordons off the road to Schemengees Bar and Grille as law enforcement officers maintain their presence in the aftermath of a mass shooting by Army reservist Robert Card in Lewiston, Maine, Oct. 27, 2023. Despite the warning by Card's friend and fellow Army reservist Sean Hodgson, which came alongside a series of other glaring red flags, Army officials discounted the warnings and ultimately did not stop Card from committing Maine's deadliest mass shooting when he killed 18 people in Lewiston. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Matt Rourke/AP
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AP
Police tape cordons off the road to Schemengees Bar and Grille as law enforcement officers maintain their presence in the aftermath of a mass shooting by Army reservist Robert Card in Lewiston, Maine, Oct. 27, 2023.

Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce is denying allegations made by Portland Police that his officers may have been drinking and dispatched themselves without orders to search for the man responsible for the mass shootings in Lewiston last October.

In an an "after-action" report submitted in January, Portland police suggested the county's regional tactical team reeked of alcohol and almost ran over fellow officers responding to the manhunt.

Following an internal investigation, Joyce said in a written statement he can "wholeheartedly deny all allegations."

He said team members who responded to Lewiston that night had either come straight from a training, working a shift at their respective law enforcement agencies or had just arrived home from a training day.

He added that the allegation that the team self deployed is also false. Instead, he said the team was asked by members of the Lewiston Police Department to respond and to send as much help as possible.

"I am confident," Joyce wrote, "that our members responded to the mass casualty event in Lewiston in both a sober and professional manner."