LEWISTON, Maine \u2014 Sean Hodgson watched and worried as his best friend of nearly two decades unraveled. His former roommate and fellow U.S. Army reservist\u2019s anger and paranoia were mounting, he had access to guns, and he refused to get help. So Hodgson did the hardest thing of his life: He sent a text about\u00a0Robert Card\u00a0to their Army supervisor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe he\u2019s going to snap and do a\u00a0mass shooting,\u201d he wrote on Sept. 15.<\/p>\n
Six weeks later, Card fatally shot\u00a018 people\u00a0at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston before killing himself. His body was found in a trailer after a\u00a0two-day search\u00a0and regionwide lockdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t in his head. I don\u2019t know exactly what went on,\u201d Hodgson told The Associated Press last week in an exclusive interview, his first since the Oct. 25 shootings. \u201cBut I do know I was right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The series of\u00a0warning signs\u00a0about Card have been well documented. In May,\u00a0relatives warned police\u00a0that Card had grown paranoid, and they expressed concern about his access to guns. In July, Card was hospitalized in a psychiatric unit for two weeks after shoving a fellow reservist and locking himself in a motel room. In August, the Army barred him from handling weapons while on duty and declared him nondeployable.<\/p>\n
And in September, Hodgson raised the most glaring red flag, telling authorities to change the passcode to the gate at their Army Reserve training facility and arm themselves if Card showed up.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI believe he\u2019s messed up in the head.\u201d<\/p>\n But authorities declined to confront Card \u2014 the clearest example of the missed opportunities to intervene and prevent the\u00a0deadliest shooting in state history. That\u2019s hard to swallow for Hodgson, who\u2019s pushing back against\u00a0an independent report\u00a0for law enforcement that described him as \u201cover the top\u201d and \u201calarmist.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI did my job, and I went over and beyond it, and I literally spelled it out for them,\u201d said Hodgson, 43, referred to by only his last name in documents related to the case. \u201cI don\u2019t know how clear I could have gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n Hodgson\u2019s account, taken together with law enforcement documents, videos and other interviews, provides the most comprehensive picture to date of potential missteps leading up to the attack.<\/p>\n In replying to AP\u2019s questions about the investigation and Hodgson\u2019s warning, the Army Reserve said in a statement this week that no one should jump to conclusions until its own investigation and an independent probe by the Army inspector general are finalized.<\/p>\n \u201cAny 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,\u201d Lt. Col. Addie Leonhardt, Army Reserve spokesperson, said in the statement. Officials wouldn\u2019t comment further.<\/p>\n Sheriff Joel Merry \u2014 of Sagadahoc County, where Card lived \u2014 didn\u2019t respond to AP\u2019s questions about whether Hodgson\u2019s warning was taken seriously enough but suggested a need for public policy changes. He previously said his office has been \u201cfully transparent\u201d and is cooperating with an independent commission appointed by the governor.<\/p>\n Hodgson said he doesn\u2019t know where the failings occurred but believes more could have been done to help his friend and prevent tragedy.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand he did a horrific thing. I don\u2019t agree with it. But I loved him,\u201d he said. \u201c I didn\u2019t want any of this for anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] LEWISTON, Maine \u2014 Sean Hodgson watched and worried as his best friend of nearly two decades unraveled. His former roommate and fellow U.S. Army reservist\u2019s anger and paranoia were mounting, he had access to guns, and he refused to get help. So Hodgson did the hardest thing of his life: He sent a text …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""I](\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2024-01\/240111-maine-shooting-mb-0923-933032.jpg\")
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