Authorities have learned that nearly three months before Robert Card killed 18 people and injured 13 at a bar and bowling alley in Maine, he tried to buy a silencer for a rifle at a local firearms store.
“He came in and filled out the form, he checked off a box that incriminated himself saying that he was in an institution,” Rick LaChapelle, the owner of Coastal Defense Firearms, said. “Our staff was fantastic, let him finish filling out the form, and said, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Card, we cannot give you this… at this point in time, we cannot release this silencer to you because of the answers that you’ve given us.”
LaChapelle added, “We did what we were supposed to do and hopefully saved a lot of lives by the proper, just following the proper procedures.”
LaChapelle, who is the city council president in Lewiston, Maine, said he believes if Card had gotten access to the silencer, the deadly shooting might have ended in more deaths because people at the two locations would not have heard the rifle fire, PEOPLE reported.
“He could have spent more time in each location,” LaChapelle said, adding that he was speaking as the business owner and not in his official capacity. “And it could have been more methodical, and my heart goes out to the people, the victims. This is just absolutely horrible, horrible. I’m frustrated that, I think, some of this could have been averted.”
Close to 7 pm Wednesday, police said Card entered the Just-In-Time bowling alley in Lewiston and opened fire with an assault-style rifle, killing seven.
At 7:08 pm, police said he then went inside Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant 4 miles from the bowling alley and fatally shot eight people. Three victims would later succumb to their injuries in the hospital.
The rampage marks the worst mass shooting in the U.S. this year and is one of the deadliest ever.
Following the massacres, Card left Lewiston and drove 10 minutes to Lisbon, where he ditched his car and disappeared. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound two days later at the Lisbon recycling plant where he used to work, police said.
LaChapelle said that Card had purchased the silencer online and had arranged to pick it up at his closest dealer, Coastal Defense.
On Aug. 5, Card went to the store to retrieve it, along with his paperwork that is required to buy guns and certain firearms accessories.
On one box of a form required to complete the transfer, Card’s answer caught the attention of the store’s staff: “have you ever been adjudicated as a mental defective or have you ever been committed to a mental institution?” Card marked with an X, indicating “yes.”
Despite not knowing many details about his answer, employees told him that they could not release the silencer to him.
Card, according to a police bulletin reviewed by ABC News, had been “committed to mental health facility for two weeks during summer 2023 and released” after he said he had been hearing voices and made threats to shoot up a National Guard base.
Card was said to have been “very cooperative,” LaChapelle added, and said he would sort out the issue with his attorney and that he was “sure” he could “get it clarified and rectified.”
He never returned.
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