Describing their actions as a "colossal failure of judgment," Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Friday sharply criticized a Sagadahoc County sheriff's deputy and Army Reserve commanders for not doing more to stop the gunman responsible for the Lewiston mass shootings last year.
She also defended a Maine law that she helped draft five years ago that's designed to remove firearms from dangerous people. The law has come under scrutiny because it can only be initiated by a police officer and requires a mental health assessment.
Mills’ comments were in response to a report released 17 days ago that sharply directed its criticism on the failures of two individuals while mostly steering clear of law and mental health system critiques. Mills, who appointed the members of the commission who authored the report, said Friday those omissions were welcome because she didn’t want the panel’s fact-finding mission tainted by the politics of gun control.
Mills fully endorsed the findings by the commission. It largely blames Sgt. Aaron Skolfield with the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office for not using Maine's yellow flag law to disarm the gunman before he carried out his rampage. It also faults the gunman's Army commander for downplaying the threat he posed and not following up after he was released from a psychiatric hospital.
Mills repeatedly singled out Skolfield during a State House press conference for failing to initiate the yellow flag process and for canceling a statewide bulletin that alerted law enforcement that the gunman was armed and dangerous.
"Instead, that deputy attempted to pass off that responsibility for securing that man's weapons to his family. He canceled the file six warning about this armed and dangerous perpetrator, and he closed the case," she said.
Skolfield has strongly disputed such characterizations. But Mills suggested that voters in Sagadahoc County read the commission's report before casting a vote for him in this year's sheriff's race. Skolfield, a Republican, is challenging Democrat Joel Merry, the current sheriff for Sagadahoc County.
Mills also defended Maine's yellow flag law, which has come under scrutiny because of its unique procedural requirements. While each red flag laws in the more than 20 states that have them are different, Maine's stands out because of the requirement for a mental health assessment. The requirement has been criticized by gun control advocates and mental health experts for stigmatizing mental illness, and also because people who carry out mass shootings are not always diagnosed with mental illness.
But Mills insists that "the law works," noting that it has been used 330 times in the 318 days since the shootings. Nevertheless, this year Mills introduced a bill that tweaks the law's protective custody procedures and adds reciprocity provisions so that it includes people under extreme risk protection orders in other states. Those changes were included in a bill that also expanded background checks to private firearm sales. That bill was passed by the Democratic controlled Legislature and is now law.
The governor also announced that she's backing a draft bill sponsored by U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent, that authorizes the military to use extreme protection order laws — including Maine's version.
Also on Friday, the Maine State Police released its internal review of its response to the Lewiston shootings and the ensuing manhunt. Mills vowed to support its recommendations with support in the state's next two-year budget.
The Maine State Police report credits itself with following an array of best practices and preventing additional loss of life after the gunman killed 18 people at two separate locations in Lewiston.
It does highlight some room for improvement, including keeping a tighter leash on tactical units, some of which self-deployed during the chaos immediately after the shooting.
The review describes those actions as creating serious safety concerns, but it provides no additional detail about specific instances of danger.
It also cites the need for upgraded high-risk tracking by police dogs, a reference to the fact that K-9 units were never deployed during the manhunt for the gunman.
The gunman's body was not discovered for nearly two days after his car was abandoned at a Lisbon boat launch. The body was found in a trailer at the recycling center where he used to work about a mile from the boat launch.
The police review says the late discovery demonstrated the need for real-time mapping capabilities.
