Maine shootings: commission highlights missed opportunities [Video]

Concord, N.H. –

The commission probing Maine’s deadliest mass shooting concluded law enforcement had ample grounds to pursue assault charges against Robert Card for punching a fellow U.S. army reservist in the face six weeks before he killed 18 people in Lewiston.

While legal experts and the man he punched concur on that, they say even if charges had been pursued they might not have prevented the shootings.

An independent commission launched by Gov. Janet Mills has been reviewing events leading up to the Oct. 25 shootings at a bowling alley and bar and the response afterward. Much of its recently released interim report focused on the state’s “yellow flag” law, which allows a judge to temporarily remove somebody’s guns during a psychiatric health crisis.

Criticism particularly focused on Sgt. Aaron Skolfield of the Sagadahoc County sheriff’s office. The panel concluded that office had probable cause under that law to take Card into …