Maine Shooter’s Friend Speaks Out About Warning Authorities Weeks Before Attack
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Sean Hodgson watched and nervous as his greatest buddy of almost twenty years unraveled. His former roommate and fellow U.S. Army reservist’s anger and paranoia have been mounting, he had entry to weapons, and he refused to get assist. So Hodgson did the toughest factor of his life: He despatched a textual content about Robert Card to their Army supervisor.
“I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting,” he wrote on Sept. 15.
Six weeks later, Card fatally shot 18 folks at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston earlier than killing himself. His physique was present in a trailer after a two-day search and regionwide lockdown.
“I wasn’t in his head. I don’t know exactly what went on,” Hodgson instructed The Associated Press final week in an unique interview, his first for the reason that Oct. 25 shootings. “But I do know I was right.”
The collection of warning indicators about Card have been nicely documented. In May, kin warned police that Card had grown paranoid, and so they expressed concern about his entry to weapons. In July, Card was hospitalized in a psychiatric unit for 2 weeks after shoving a fellow reservist and locking himself in a motel room. In August, the Army barred him from dealing with weapons whereas on responsibility and declared him nondeployable.
And in September, Hodgson raised probably the most evident pink flag, telling authorities to vary the passcode to the gate at their Army Reserve coaching facility and arm themselves if Card confirmed up.
“Please,” he wrote. “I believe he’s messed up in the head.”
But authorities declined to confront Card — the clearest instance of the missed alternatives to intervene and forestall the deadliest taking pictures in state historical past. That’s exhausting to swallow for Hodgson, who’s pushing again in opposition to an impartial report for legislation enforcement that described him as “over the top” and “alarmist.”
“I did my job, and I went over and beyond it, and I literally spelled it out for them,” stated Hodgson, 43, referred to by solely his final identify in paperwork associated to the case. “I don’t know how clear I could have gotten.”
Hodgson’s account, taken along with legislation enforcement paperwork, movies and different interviews, offers probably the most complete image so far of potential missteps main as much as the assault.
In replying to AP’s questions concerning the investigation and Hodgson’s warning, the Army Reserve stated in an announcement this week that nobody ought to leap to conclusions till its personal investigation and an impartial probe by the Army inspector normal are finalized.
“Any speculation at this point without having all the details could affect the outcome of the investigation. More details may become available once the investigation is complete,” Lt. Col. Addie Leonhardt, Army Reserve spokesperson, stated within the assertion. Officials wouldn’t remark additional.
Sheriff Joel Merry — of Sagadahoc County, the place Card lived — didn’t reply to AP’s questions on whether or not Hodgson’s warning was taken severely sufficient however prompt a necessity for public coverage modifications. He beforehand stated his workplace has been “fully transparent” and is cooperating with an impartial fee appointed by the governor.
Hodgson stated he doesn’t know the place the failings occurred however believes extra may have been achieved to assist his buddy and forestall tragedy.
“I understand he did a horrific thing. I don’t agree with it. But I loved him,” he stated. “ I didn’t want any of this for anybody.”
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For a lot of their friendship, Card was “the sensible one,” Hodgson stated. They met in 2006 within the Army Reserve and have become particularly shut after they each divorced across the similar time.
When Hodgson was evicted from his New Hampshire condominium in 2022, Card instructed him to maneuver to Maine, and so they lived collectively for a few month, he stated. When Card was hospitalized in New York in July, Hodgson was the one who drove him again to Maine.
By then, Hodgson stated, Card had begun venting to him about his perception that these round him have been accusing him of being a pedophile. Hodgson believed a few of Card’s complaints have been true — a case of mistaken id stemming from the truth that one other Robert Card is on the state’s intercourse offender registry — and described an incident on the bowling alley when a father snatched his daughter away from Card after he supplied the toddler a howdy.
“I always believed him. I always stuck by him,” Hodgson stated. “I am the closest one to Robert Card. Besides his mother, he pushed everybody away.
“I was the last one he pushed away.”
In September, after an evening out on the Oxford Casino, Card started “flipping out,” Hodgson stated — pounding the steering wheel and nearly crashing a number of instances. After Hodgson begged him to drag over, he stated, Card punched him within the face.
“We were having a good night, and he just snapped,” he stated.
Hodgson instructed Card to drop him off at a gasoline station close to his home.
“I love you, and I’ll always be here for you no matter what,” he stated he instructed his buddy as he received out of the automotive.
Hodgson despatched his textual content two days later, telling his coaching supervisor he feared what Card would possibly do. He didn’t converse to Card after that, he stated, although they handed one another at work.
“It took me a lot to report somebody I love,” he stated. “But when the hair starts standing up on the back of your neck, you have to listen.”
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After his textual content, Hodgson stated, army officers adopted up, asking whether or not Card threatened particular folks. He instructed them he hadn’t. But they didn’t ask for assist in approaching Card, he stated, despite the fact that they drove vehicles for a similar firm and he knew his buddy’s schedule and route.
“I could’ve told them when he was at work, when he was at home, what hours he worked,” he stated.
Authorities briefly staked out the Army Reserve Center and visited Card’s house. They declined to confront him, fearing that will “throw a stick of dynamite on a pool of gas,” based on video launched final month by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office.
In the movies, officers downplayed Hodgson’s warning, suggesting he may need been drunk when he texted at 2:04 a.m. Speaking to police on the coaching heart, Army Reserve Capt. Jeremy Reamer describes Hodgson as “not the most credible of our soldiers” and later tells Sagadahoc Sheriff Sgt. Aaron Skolfield his message ought to be taken “with a grain of salt.”
Hodgson, who was unaware of these feedback till contacted by AP, acknowledged in a collection of interviews that he struggles with post-traumatic stress dysfunction and alcohol dependancy however stated he wasn’t consuming that night time and was awake as a result of he works nights and was ready for his boss to name.
Hodgson additionally acknowledges that he faces two legal expenses, one alleging he assaulted a lady he was relationship in 2022 and one other alleging that he violated his bail circumstances by possessing alcohol final month. He’s additionally in scorching water for wrecking a army automobile final summer season, he stated. But he stated authorities ought to have taken him extra severely given his relationship with Card, his previous coaching on risk detection and mitigation, and his earlier work as a safety officer at a nuclear plant.
“That was the most difficult thing I ever had to do, was report him to command, and I did that. And for them to discredit me?” he stated. “It pisses me off because all they had to do is listen.”
In a textual content message this week, Reamer declined to touch upon questions from AP and referred them to Army Reserve public affairs officers.
According to the impartial overview for the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office, officers didn’t have enough grounds the day they staked out Card’s home to power the difficulty and take him into protecting custody after he refused to reply the door. That step is important to set off Maine’s “yellow flag” legislation. It permits a choose to briefly take away somebody’s weapons throughout a psychiatric well being disaster.
But Stephanie Sherman, an lawyer who’s represented a number of households of survivors of the 2022 mass taking pictures at an elementary college in Uvalde, Texas, stated police had greater than sufficient info to take to an area choose.
The movies present officers with a disturbingly informal strategy to the risk Card posed, Sherman stated. She additionally famous that Skolfield referred to the Cards as a “big family in this area” and stated he didn’t need to publicize over police radio that officers have been visiting the house.
“It was sort of balancing the safety of the public versus this family’s reputation,” she stated. “And that should not be a factor.”
Watching the movies was gut-wrenching for Tammy Asselin, who turned separated from her 10-year-old daughter throughout the chaos of the bowling alley taking pictures. She stated it was the primary time she knew for certain that steps may have been taken to stop the bloodbath.
“Listening to that interaction between the military and the sheriff, it hurt me to hear the giggle and the laughter in their voice,” Asselin stated, a tear operating down her cheek. “Because I don’t think they would be giggling and laughing had they been the ones in my shoes that day, not knowing where their daughter was.”
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For weeks after sending the textual content about Card to their supervisor, Hodgson stated he prayed that it wouldn’t come true. But as quickly as he heard concerning the taking pictures, he known as his sergeant.
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” he stated he instructed him. “I know it’s Robert Card.”
Hodgson was driving to Massachusetts for work that day. He fielded cellphone calls to and from a number of legislation enforcement companies that didn’t appear to be speaking with each other, he stated.
He stated he instructed authorities straight away that Card probably was headed to the Maine Recycling Corp.
Card had labored there, and it wasn’t removed from the boat launch the place his automotive was discovered after the shootings. His physique would ultimately be discovered there, after preliminary unsuccessful searches that critics stated have been too cautious.
More than two months later, Hodgson stated, he hates that Card “took the easy way out” and isn’t round to reply questions or face the results of what he did. It’s not the Robert Card he knew and beloved for 17 years, he stated, and he struggles with that every single day.
Hodgson stated he desires folks to know he did every thing he may to avoid wasting lives.
“I don’t know how to express to people how much I loved him, how much I cared about him,” he stated. “And how much I hate what he did.”