Friend Of Maine Mass Shooter Saw Something, Said Something, For All The Good It Did. (It Did None Good.)
If cops had to check every sketchy guy with a gun, they'd be doing nothing else.
Sean Hodgson, a close friend of Robert Card, the guy who back in October killed 18 people in Maine’s worst mass shooting (yet), has done his first interview about the event since the Lewiston killings. Hodgson told the Associated Press that he did all he could to notify authorities that his friend was becoming unhinged and needed help — or at least that someone should keep Card from having access to firearms — but that he doesn’t think those concerns were taken seriously enough.
We knew the general outlines of this part of the story within a few days after the shootings: People close to Card, including family members, had been trying to get him help, and had brought their fears to the attention of law enforcement, since at least May of 2023. We knew that a soldier — Hodgson, it turns out — had warned Army Reserve superiors that Card had assaulted him and talked about shooting up a training center. And we knew that after that, the Army Reserve contacted local law enforcement to request that they do a safety check on Card.
And of course, we knew that after attempting and failing to contact Card, sheriff’s deputies got in touch with Card’s brother, who said the family would “secure” any guns that Card might have access to, and well, that was pretty much that until Card started shooting people in a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston on October 25.
Hodgson, who served with Card in the Army Reserve, where they met in 2006, told the AP, “I wasn’t in his head. I don’t know exactly what went on. […] But I do know I was right.”
As the AP notes, it’s not like there was a shortage of signs Card was in distress. There were plenty of big red flashing warning lights, at least in the metaphorical sense:
The series of warning signs about Card have been well documented. In May, relatives warned police that 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.
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.
“Please,” he wrote. “I believe he’s messed up in the head.”
Authorities had plenty of chances to step in, but apart from the attempted wellness check in September, didn’t.
The AP also notes that Hodgson is not at all happy that, in an independent report prepared for the local cop shop in December, he was described as “over the top” and “alarmist.”
Well, yes. His friend’s behavior and talk of shooting up an Army facility was pretty alarming. But apparently Hodgson should have adjusted his tone or something to be taken seriously?
“I did my job, and I went over and beyond it, and I literally spelled it out for them,” said Hodgson, 43, referred to by only his last name in documents related to the case. “I don’t know how clear I could have gotten.”
The story notes that the two men had been friends since 2006 and that before his mental health started deteriorating, Card was “the sensible one,” according to Hodgson; Card let Hodgson stay with him after Hodgson was evicted in 2022. Last summer, Hodgson picked up Hodgson from the mental hospital in July and gave him a ride back to Maine.
Then in September, Card and Hodgson went to a casino, and on the way back, Card, who was driving, started “flipping out,” having angry outbursts and driving erratically. Card eventually punched Hodgson in the face when Hodgson begged him to pull over.
Two days later, worried about that behavior, Hodgson texted his superior to warn about Card’s threats and strange behavior, worried about him having access to weapons: “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.”
Mm-hmmm.
Also in this story we learn that when the Army Reserve contacted local law enforcement on September 15 to ask for a safety check on Card, they did take some action, kind of:
Authorities briefly staked out the Army Reserve Center and visited Card’s home. They declined to confront him, fearing that would “throw a stick of dynamite on a pool of gas,” according to video released last month by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office.
In the videos, officials downplayed Hodgson’s warning, suggesting he might have been drunk when he texted at 2:04 a.m. Speaking to police at the training center, Army Reserve Capt. Jeremy Reamer describes Hodgson as “not the most credible of our soldiers” and later tells Sagadahoc Sheriff Sgt. Aaron Skolfield his message should be taken “with a grain of salt.”
Hodgson only found out about that bit when the AP interviewed him, which must have been a surprise. He said that yes he has had issues with PTSD and alcohol but was definitely not drinking that night because he was on call for work and expecting a call from his boss.
And full disclosure, the dude’s history is sketchy, including outstanding charges for allegedly assaulting a woman he dated in 2022 and a bail violation for possessing alcohol. “He’s also in hot water for wrecking a military vehicle last summer, he said.”
Hodgson says his legal problems were no reason for not taking his warnings about Card seriously. But maybe he only says that now because he was right, and what kind of excuse is that?
This is one of those “go read the whole thing” stories, and we haven’t even touched on what one attorney calls the “disturbingly casual approach” local law enforcement took to the warnings about Card, which may have had something to do with not wanting to harm the reputation of Card’s family. The whole mess really doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in law enforcement, which we’re sure comes as a great surprise.
Guess we all need more guns, then! Or to train in mixed martial arts like Sean Hannity, so we too can stop all the bad guys ourselves.
[AP / Photo by ‘Tamboko the Jaguar,’ Creative Commons License 2.0]
Wonkette is funded entirely by reader donations. If you can, please subscribe, or if a one-time donation works better, this here is the button, and we don’t even do a background check on your money:
"BREAKING: The grand jury has decided NOT to indict Brittany Watts. She's the Warren Ohio woman facing charges after miscarriage."
https://x.com/laurahancock/status/1745513273624047751?s=20
In every other goddamn civilized country guns just never come up, unless you're a hunter or farmer. Nobody even thinks about them. It's just not a thing.
Also those countries don't tend to have mass shootings.
One country does.
It's pretty open and shut here.