Maine State Police Colonel William Ross gives an update during a press conference about the mass shooting on October 26, 2023 in Lewiston, Maine. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
Members of a commission investigating the events surrounding the Oct. 25 mass shooting in Lewiston heard from representatives of Maine State Police on Friday who answered questions about reports of disorganization, including self-deployment issues, during the two-day manhunt.
Appearing again before the Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Tragedy in Lewiston, Col. Bill Ross of the Maine State Police outlined the law enforcement response, including internal and external communications, after Robert Card II opened fire, killing 18 people.
Ross described how, in the hours after the shooting, law enforcement were responding to a potentially active shooter situation with up to four potential crime scenes before finding the car and transitioning to a manhunt and criminal investigation. “That can be chaotic,” he noted of that shift.
In an after-action report obtained by the Associated Press last month, the Portland Police Department outlined what they described as “utter chaos” as officers without orders rushed to the scenes.
“I have never seen the amount of self-dispatching, federal involvement with plain clothes and utter chaos with self-dispatching in my career,” tactical team leader Nicholas Goodman wrote in the report.
On Friday, Ross fielded an array of questions, from how law enforcement prioritized and executed their search, to the chain of command, to reports of leaked information.
Last week, the commission heard from Card’s family members who shared details of their interactions with law enforcement both in the months leading up to the shooting and throughout the manhunt and subsequent investigation.
The commission questioned Ross about how law enforcement weighed information provided by family members and people close to Card, for instance the recommendation to search the Maine Recycling site where Card used to work and found dead of a self-inflicted wound two days after the shooting.
Ross explained that “as investigators, we have to be very cautious about what we are extracting from them and what we are doing with it. Nothing against the Card family but in the past, people lie to us, they are deceitful, they help the offender, they provide information.”
“We have to be very guarded with that and it’s tough for the family, particularly a family in the end that was very cooperative,” he added.
A video of the full commission hearing is available here.
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