Maine local police departments recount limited equipment, resources during Lewiston manhunt

AUGUSTA, Maine — Ellen Gorman wanted to make sure she had the facts straight after hearing Lisbon Police Officer Renee Bernard describe her “cursory search” of the Maine Recycling Corporation in Lisbon in the early hours of October 26.

Gorman, a former associate justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court who sits on the Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Tragedy in Lewiston, repeated back a summary of what she understood from the testimony.

“You were three officers, with a long gun, in an unmarked vehicle driving around a place where there might have been an armed assailant…,” she was briefly interrupted by the officer, but finished her thought: “… who killed 18 people, who had a long gun and was said to have night vision with him.”

“What was the purpose of this search?” Gorman asked.

The officer said they had no information indicating if the perpetrator, Robert Card, was actually there at that time. After a two-day search, Card’s body was eventually found in a trailer in an overflow lot at the recycling center where he had previously worked.

Lisbon Police Chief Ryan McGee told the commission, “We don’t know to this day whether (Card) was there when my officers went through.”

“We were just trying to check our town,” Bernard said.

Bernard was one of five officers from the Lewiston and Lisbon Police departments the commission interviewed at its meeting Thursday, Feb. 8. Days after Card was found, the Maine Department of Public Safety released a timeline of the 48-hour manhunt, but many questions remained unanswered.

In the time between the shooting and the discovery of Card’s body, a shelter-in-place order was instituted in Androscoggin and Sagadahoc counties as people waited in their homes for news.

The commission centered their inquiry on the initial response to the two shooting scenes, Schemengees Bar & Grille and Sparetime Bowling in Lewiston, and the subsequent manhunt for Card. There were also many nuanced questions trying to pinpoint exactly where Card’s car was found, where officers were positioned and other lay-of-the-land details.

Card’s car was found the first night of the hunt at a boat launch in Lisbon, about a mile from the recycling center.

Eventually, the search was turned over to Maine State Police because, as Lewiston Chief of Police David St. Pierre and other officers explained to the commission, state police have jurisdiction over any homicide outside of Portland or Bangor. However, local law enforcement did the initial response and performed what kept being referred to as “cursory searches” in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 25 mass shooting.

St. Pierre estimated there were 300 to 400 police officers from around New England that showed up to help. While it was appreciated, he said that the Lewiston Police Department didn’t have the space or supplies to accommodate that many people, which is why the command center was relocated to Lewiston High School.

The initial search of the recycling plant lasted no more than 10 minutes, Bernard said. Since the three officers only had hand guns, they weren’t opening many doors or going into the trailers on the property. Mainly, there were shining lights on the property — since it is poorly lit — and looking for anything unusual, but being cautious since they knew Card was likely armed and they didn’t have full tactical gear.

Gorman’s testimony underscored one of the struggles Lisbon police faced in its initial search for Card. The department didn’t have enough rifles and other tactical material for the entire force to be part of the search.

There are enough long guns, a type of firearm with long barrels, for every marked cruiser, “which is perfect when you have every cruiser on the road,” McGee explained.

But, “It’s not perfect when you call in your entire police department,” he said.

McGee said he gave his rifle to other officers to use during the search because of the short supply.

While he sees that now as an area where the department can be more prepared going forward, McGee said the officers were “doing everything they could to bring justice to what happened to those 18 people who lost their lives.”

McGee said he’s already working with the town manager and taking other steps to make sure the department has sufficient resources should they need them again in the future. However, he didn’t go into specifics about what additional weapons or how many the department is trying to obtain.

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