Beyond ‘yellow flag’ law, Maine commission highlights another missed opportunity before shootings

By HOLLY RAMER
Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The interim report from the commission investigating Maine’s deadliest mass shooting focused mostly on whether authorities should have taken shooter Robert Card into custody and seized his guns under the state’s so-called yellow flag law. The commission said the sheriff’s office should have initiated that process. But it also said authorities had more than enough information to pursue assault charges against Card for punching a fellow Army reservist in the face six weeks before he killed 18 people in Lewiston. The commission said Card could have been arrested and a prosecutor could have requested bail conditions that prohibited the possession of firearms. Legal experts and the man Card punched agree, though they say doing so might not have prevented the shootings.