Maine shooting gunman Robert Card’s Reserve unit asked police to check on him in September, Army says

The Maine gunman’s Army Reserve unit asked police to check on him weeks before he went on a deadly shooting rampage at a bar and a bowling alley, according to an Army spokesperson. Robert Card killed 18 people and injured 13 others before he was found dead Friday night of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

In September, the gunman’s unit asked the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office in southern Maine to perform a “health and welfare check” on the reservist, Lt. Col. Ruth Castro, an Army spokesperson, said in a statement to CBS News.

The request was made “out of an abundance of caution after the unit became concerned for his safety,” Castro said. She didn’t provide additional details, citing an ongoing Army investigation.

Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry told the Associated Press a deputy couldn’t find the gunman in September at his home in Bowdoin, prompting the sheriff to send an alert asking authorities throughout the state to look out for him, according to the news service. The gunman had made threats against his military base and other soldiers, according to the AP.

CBS News has reached out to the sheriff’s office multiple times for comment.

The gunman was a sergeant first class in the 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment based in Saco, Maine, according to the Army. He worked as a petroleum supply specialist and had no combat deployments.

In July, leaders of the gunman’s unit said he was “behaving erratically” while training at the U.S. Military Academy in New York and asked for law enforcement to be contacted “out of concern for his safety,” a spokesperson for the New York Army National Guard told CBS News. A U.S. official said he didn’t participate in any training because almost within the first day, he started acting erratically.

The New York State Police took the gunman to an Army hospital at West Point for a medical evaluation, according to the National Guard spokesperson. The state police declined to comment on the incident, citing an active investigation.

According to a Maine law enforcement bulletin seen by CBS News during last week’s manhunt for the gunman, he had recently reported “mental health issues,” including “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” a military base.

-Evan Coan contributed reporting.