The man who shot and killed 18 people in Maine on Wednesday had been on the radar of law enforcement for at least a month before the massacre last week, according to The Associated Press and CNN.
Police across the state were alerted to Robert Card’s potentially dangerous nature in September, after he made threats to the military base where he was stationed, according to The Associated Press.
The warnings were sent a month before he carried out the largest mass shooting in the state’s history, marking his “veiled threats”, the paper reported.
“We’ve added extra patrols, we’ve been doing it for about two weeks,” Jack Clements, police chief in Saco, Maine, told The Associated Press. “The guy never showed up.”
Army spokesman Bryce Dubee previously told PEOPLE that the suspect is an oil supply specialist in the U.S. Army Reserves.
Robert Card.
Lewiston Maine Police Department/AFP via Getty Images
A Sagadahoc County police officer, who visited the killer’s home on Sept. 16 for a welfare check, was told by someone familiar with the case that he would often open the door to his trailer “with a gun in his hand out of sight of the person outside,” CNN reported.
The officer would also learn that the U.S. military raised concerns from a soldier who said the reservist would “snap and commit a mass shooting,” CNN reported, citing documents filed in connection with the welfare check.
Maine shootings: What we know about ‘armed and dangerous’ suspect now wanted for murders
CNN reports that the Maine National Guard has expressed concern, but the entity told the media on Monday that they had nothing to do with the killer.
“[The shooter] he was not a member of, nor did he ever serve in, the Maine National Guard,” they said in an emailed statement to CNN. “All inquiries about his service should be directed to the US Army Reserve.”
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Maine State Police found a 40-year-old man dead Friday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, PEOPLE previously reported. At the time, he was wanted on eight counts of murder.
The Associated Press previously reported that the suspect was recently committed to a mental health facility for two weeks last summer.
According to the news release, the suspect threatened to commit a shooting at a military base in Saco, Maine. The bulletin also says the suspect said he heard voices.
Eighteen people were killed and 13 were wounded during the shooting that happened at Just-In-Time Recreation, a bowling alley, and Schemengees Bar and Grille, about four miles away.
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