Maine State Police on Thursday defended their oversight of the extensive manhunt after the Lewiston mass shootings. Members of the commission investigating the response asked few questions during the first three hours of testimony, but they did inquire about the decision not to use dogs to track the shooter.
State police oversaw the manhunt for Robert Card after he killed 18 people at two different locations in late October and the agency has faced scrutiny for not finding his body until 48 hours later and about a mile from where he abandoned his vehicle at a Lisbon boat launch.
But Maj. Lucas Hare, who headed operations when state police assumed command the night of Oct. 25, says the search was complicated by an influx of law enforcement converging on the scene and rumors that Card had both military training and thermal imaging on his high-powered rifle.
Hare told the commission that he worried Card's vehicle was a potential ambush and he said the use of tracking dogs would have put K-9 teams at risk.
"A nighttime, wooded search with a K-9 is probably the most dangerous operation law enforcement will undertake, especially in a circumstance like this," he said.
Recounting that chaotic night on Thursday, Hare recalled how, decades earlier, a man in New Hampshire had ambushed several officers during a manhunt.
"That was my immediate thought, this was an ambush of some nature,” Hare said.
He added that those factors were top of mind for him that night as he told police forming a perimeter around the site to hold back.
"I know my decision and my request to have those officers not approach that car was not a popular one,” he said. “Knowing what I know today, I would make that same decision."
Police now know Card apparently didn’t have a night-vision scope. And nearly two days would pass before a SWAT team eventually found his body about a mile down the road in the trailer of the recycling business where he formerly worked. What happened — and didn't happen — during that two-day period is a major focus of the independent commission investigating the worst mass shooting in Maine history.
One question that has surfaced repeatedly since Oct. 25 is why police didn't immediately use tracking dogs to search for Card.
Sgt. Gregory Roy, who commands the state police's tactical response unit, recounted how the road to the boat launch was so chocked with police cruisers when he arrived that he had to get out of armed vehicle and clear a path. He said that was to be fully expected in such a situation as police quickly converged on the car.
But Roy said the exhaust from those cruisers – combined with the downward winds being created by a New Hampshire police helicopter hovering overhead – would have made a search with police dogs difficult. It was also potentially three hours since Card parked the car, which would further reduce any scent for the dogs to track.
And then there was the threat that Card was potentially hiding in the woods nearby, armed with a night-vision scope and a rifle. So Roy said the decision was made not to send SWAT teams with K-9 trackers into the woods that night, much less allow the first K-9 units on the scene to do a search with much less equipment.
"The goal of a K-9 track is to find an individual. But you also have to be able to win the encounter,” Roy said. “And given the weaponry and the technology we believe the individual possessed, that would be an unwinnable situation for a K-9 team to be tracking at night under white light” from flashlights.
The commission's investigation is one of multiple reviews of the Lewiston shooting taking place in Maine and at the federal level. The U.S. Army is also investigating how Reserve leaders responded to growing concerns about Card's paranoia, aggressive behavior and his access to guns.
Maine State Police Col. William Ross told the commission that they have conducted some internal reviews. But he said state police are also waiting for the commission's recommendations before undertaking any major changes.
"But we have talked extensively what we did during those three days, what we could do better,” Ross said. “And if there was something necessary for us to implement, we would have done that already."
The commission plans to issue an interim report so lawmakers can make potential policy changes before the Legislature adjourns for the year in April.
Earlier this week, lawmakers gave the commission subpoena powers that will allow it to obtain confidential records and perhaps compel evidence. That could come into play as the commission seeks additional information from the Army.
