Victims' family members and survivors of the Lewiston mass shooting are amending their lawsuit against the U.S. government to include the findings of a recent report from the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense.
The report found that both the Army and Navy failed to follow their own mandatory policies and properly report violent threats by service members nearly 50% of the time.
Specifically, it states that "failure to consistently report violent threats to military law enforcement could increase the risk of additional violent incidents by service members, such a what occurred with Sgt. First Class Card on October 25, 2023."
First filed in U.S. District Court in Maine on September 3, the lawsuit against the Department of Defense, the Army and Keller Army Hospital details how the institutions repeatedly disregarded threats posed by shooter Robert Card in the months before he killed 18 people and injured 13 others.
Attorney Ben Gideon calls the DOD report a "significant development in the case."
"The DOD report is a powerful admission by the U.S. government that the Army's failures to follow its own policies and procedures increased the risk of exactly what happened in Lewiston, Maine and that's the first time they've acknowledged that publicly," he said.
The government has 60 days to respond to the complaint.
Attorney Travis Brennan says that while the lawsuit cannot bring back his clients' loved ones and cannot undue the terrible harms that they've suffered, they want to make sure that this will not happen to anyone in the future.
