(Ken Silva, Headline USA) “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.”
That was the text Robert Card’s best friend and fellow Army reservist sent to his superiors on Sept. 15, weeks before Card allegedly killed 18 people last month in two separate shootings last October—the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history.
The friend, reservist Sean Hodgson, reportedly testified about his forewarnings Thursday during a commission investigating the killings. Another fellow reservist, Daryl Reed, also testified at the hearing, according to the Military Times.
However, some officials downplayed Hodgson’s warning, the Times reported, apparently thinking that he might have been drunk because of the late hour of his text. Army Reserve Capt. Jeremy Reamer reportedly described Hodge as “not the most credible of our soldiers” and said his message should be taken “with a grain of salt.”
Responding to that smear, Hodgson reportedly told the Maine commission on Thursday that he struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol addiction, but that he wasn’t drinking the night of his text. He reportedly said he was awake because he works nights and was waiting for his boss to call.
Hodgson obviously had good reason to be worried about their friend. The shooter reportedly threatened to shoot up a National Guard base earlier in 2023, had reported “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” the military base, and had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer.
Card was hospitalized after pushing a fellow reservist and locking himself in his motel room while his unit was training near West Point, New York. Fellow reservists told police who escorted Card for an evaluation that he’d been acting paranoid and accusing others of talking about him behind his back.
Card said they were right to be worried: “They’re scared ‘cause I’m gonna friggin’ do something. Because I am capable,” Card told police.
Three more months after that, he killed 18 people in a mass shooting before allegedly killing himself.
Maine’s commission is now investigating unanswered questions about the event, including what, if any, concerns were raised by Army personnel about Card’s mental health, what actions were taken in response to those concerns, and whether there was anything the Army could have done to prevent the mass shooting.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
