100 Lewiston mass shooting survivors and victims' families claim U.S. military negligence
Lawyers representing survivors and families of the victims in the deadly rampage are pursuing negligence claims against the federal government that could pave the way for 100 individual lawsuits.
One year after an Army reservist perpetrated a mass shooting across Lewiston, Maine, lawyers representing survivors and families of the victims said Tuesday they are pursuing negligence claims against the federal government that could pave the way for 100 individual lawsuits.
The claimants are serving legal notices of their intent to sue the Defense Department, the Army and Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point, New York, alleging they failed to respond to warning signs and threats the gunman, Robert Card, made in the months before he killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar on Oct. 25.
“Today marks the first step toward ensuring accountability and justice for the families and victims of the worst mass shooting in Maine history,” lawyer Benjamin Gideon of Gideon Asen LLC said in a statement.
A candlelight vigil to honor those who died and were injured in the mass shooting in Lewiston last October.John Tlumacki / Boston Globe via Getty Images fileThe legal notices are not part of a class-action case; four law firms are representing the 100 individuals.
One of the firms, National Trial Law in Texas, helped survivors and families of those killed in a 2017 church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, committed by an Air Force service member. The federal government was found partly liable in that case, and the survivors agreed to settle last year after the Justice Department appealed.
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