The Sagadahoc County sheriff’s deputy heavily criticized for his response to concerns about the Lewiston shooter’s mental stability and access to guns is running for sheriff against his boss.
Sgt. Aaron Skolfield, a Republican, said Tuesday that he’s running against incumbent Democratic Sheriff Joel Merry because the department is understaffed and decades-old policies need to be updated.
He said he could not comment on a report released Friday that criticized him for what it described as his repeated failures to take action to stop Robert Card, 40, of Bowdoin, before he killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar Oct. 25.
“I feel for the families, but I can’t go any further than that,” Skolfield said, noting that the county and police union will be issuing a response to the report.
Merry did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment on his run for reelection or his response to the report.
On Friday, an independent commission investigating the circumstances before, during and after the state’s deadliest mass shooting issued a report critical of the sheriff’s department in general and Skolfied in particular.
In the interim report, all seven commission members agreed that the sheriff’s office should have taken Card, an Army reservist, into protective custody the month before the shootings and that it had the power to take away his weapons.
They said in mid-September, the department knew Card suffered from a serious mental illness, had recently spent time in a psychiatric facility, had access to 10-15 firearms, had “assaulted his friend days earlier,” had threatened to “shoot up” the Army reserve drill center in Saco and had threatened the Army personnel who took him to the hospital.
The report criticized Skolfield for making “only limited attempts” to meet Card face to face and said he failed to follow up on other information.
“He failed to consult the agency’s records concerning a previous complaint about Mr. Card, failed to contact the individual who was assaulted by Mr. Card and heard his threat, and he failed to follow up on leads to determine how to contact Mr. Card,” the report states. “He also failed to seek assistance from prosecutors or other law enforcement agencies to determine how best to proceed.”
The report is a contrast to one issued shortly after the shooting by a Portland attorney hired by Merry to examine the department’s response to Card, both in May when family reached out to say he needed help and again in September, when Army officials requested a welfare check.
In January, while testifying before the commission, Merry read a statement that said Portland attorney Michael Cunniff found that the department acted “reasonably under the totality of the circumstances.”
For his part, Merry was out on medical leave during the September time period when Skolfield attempted to contact Card, but ultimately never saw him in person.
Skolfield told the commission he went to Card’s home Sept. 15 to check on him, but that there was no vehicle in the driveway and he did not think he was there. He went back the next day along with a Kennebec County sheriff’s deputy and knocked on the door, but Card did not answer.
Skolfield said he believed Card was home.
“I can’t make him open the door,” he said. “I can’t kick in the door. Had I kicked in the door it would have been a violation of law. It was impossible to get a search warrant because no law had been broken.”
The following day, he spoke to Card’s brother, who told him that he and his father would work to remove Card’s firearms from his home. And Army personnel told him it would be best to let Card cool off and not confront him, Skolfield said.
“I didn’t want to agitate him,” he said. “I didn’t want to throw that stick of dynamite into a pool of gas and create a situation. Ideally, we all know how we wish this would have turned out. I’m heartbroken about what happened.”
Yet families who have testified to the commission on two different occasions have said it’s up to police — not family members — to handle these types of situations, even if they are dangerous.
The commission agreed, saying in the report that the sheriff’s office has a duty “to preserve and protect the safety of the public.”
Skolfield said Tuesday he is running for sheriff because the county has only two deputies on patrol at a time, which is “not safe for the public, not safe for the crew working the road.”
“Personnel is significantly below what we believe it should be,” he said. “Two deputies on patrol for the whole county is on the light side.”