Lewiston shooting victims plan to sue Defense Department and Army for negligence • Maine Morning Star

Victim of the Lewiston shooting announced Tuesday that they plan to sue the Defense Department, the U.S. Army and an Army hospital for negligence in failing to heed warning signs and an explicit threat of a mass shooting.

Four law firms collectively representing 100 clients, survivors and family members of the 18 people killed last October have sent a legal notice to the federal government detailing that intention, but no lawsuits have been filed so far.

The federal government has six months to review the claims in this notice. known as Standard Form 95. If the U.S. denies the claims or fails to take action within that deadline, the plaintiffs can file lawsuits in federal court.

“The U.S. should have sufficient information through the Army’s own internal investigation to do this We check our claims promptly. However, if the US chooses to stall time by sitting on our claims without acting, we will file our lawsuit six months and one day from today,” said Benjamin Gideon, one of the lawyers representing the victims represented.

The allegations in the notice repeat many of the findings of Condition And army previous investigations that led to cross-agency failures related to the handling of Robert Card II’s deteriorating mental health in the months before he killed 18 people and injured 13 others in Lewiston on October 25, 2023.

“There is pain, trauma and regret that will never go away,” said Cynthia Young, whose husband, William, and their 14-year-old son, Aaron, died. “As horrific as the shooting was, it is all the more tragic that there were many opportunities to prevent it and they were not used.”

The notice contains allegations that the Army failed to act when it became aware of Card’s deteriorating mental health and erratic behavior. It also alleges that Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point, New York, discharged Card without a treatment plan despite determining that Card’s mental health posed a serious threat to others. While Card was released on the condition that he not have access to firearms, the release also states that the hospital and the Army confiscated Card’s firearms, including the AR-10 assault rifle that he used to carry out the mass shooting. would not have taken with us.

The release focuses on allegations against federal agencies, but also addresses how those agencies have left local law enforcement with incomplete information.

After Card was discharged from the hospital and returned to Maine, the Army and the hospital failed to do so

Notify local law enforcement in Maine to inform them of Card’s criminal history or that his doctors had ordered his weapons to be confiscated, the notice said. The plaintiffs also allege that the Army downplayed a threat to commit a mass shooting made in September 2023 and discouraged local law enforcement from taking decisive action.

“Today is the first step in ensuring accountability and justice for the families and victims of the worst mass shooting in Maine’s history,” Gideon said.

In addition to two Maine-based companies – Gideon Asen and Berman & Simmons – Lewiston shooting victims are being supported by two foreign firms that have reached settlements for victims of other mass shootings.

Koskoff, a Connecticut-based firm, previously represented victims of the sCheering at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. The Company secured $73 million after suing Remington, the maker of the AR-15 rifle used by the shooter.

National Trial Law, a Texas-based firm, was represented Survivors of a 2017 church shooting in Sutherland Springs and reached a $230 million settlement with the US Air Force Failure to report the shooter’s history of violence into the FBI database.

“In the year since the mass shooting, there have been multiple investigations and many facts have come to light showing that the Army could – and should – have acted.” said Travis Brennan, an attorney at Berman & Simmons. “While we expect to learn more from the civil case, it is now abundantly clear that there were many opportunities for intervention that could have prevented the tragic events of October 25.”

The communication sent to the federal government contains no allegations of failures by local law enforcement authorities. There were mistakes like that detailed from the state commission that investigated the shooting, specifically that the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office had sufficient probable cause to place Card in protective custody Maine’s yellow flag law and start a petition to confiscate his firearms.