Army and police missed opportunities to potentially stop Maine mass shooter, report says

Nine months after a former member of the U.S. Army Reserve killed 18 people in two linked massacres that became the deadliest shootings in Maine's history, a special commission tasked with investigating what happened, and whether it could have been prevented, released a final report Tuesday detailing missed opportunities to potentially stop the rampage.

The report pointed to failures on the parts of both the Army Reserves and local law enforcement to intervene in the gunman's psychiatric crisis, creating an image of a spiraling reservist whose weapons should have been seized before he had a chance to carry out the attacks.

The independent commission — which held more than a dozen public meetings, heard from scores of witnesses and reviewed thousands of pages of evidence — cited shortcomings by police for failing to take the gunman's weapons and by the Army Reserves for failing to provide proper care for the 40-year-old gunman, Robert Card.