Maine shooting survivors, victims' families threaten to sue Army, Defense Department

The big picture: The survivors and families of the victims plan to serve legal notices of their intent to sue the Department of Defense, the Army, and Keller Army Community Hospital, in West Point, New York on Tuesday.

• "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, who is helping represent the plaintiffs, said in a statement, NBC News reported.
• The claimants allege that the government and army failed to heed warning signs and threats that the shooter made in the months before the shootings.
• Both the Army and the Pentagon told Axios that it could not comment on ongoing litigation.

Flashback: The dual October 2023 shootings at a bar and bowling alley left 18 people dead and more than a dozen injured.

• The suspected shooter, Robert Card, was found dead days later from a self-inflicted gunshot wound following a manhunt that had prompted lockdowns in communities around Lewiston.

State of play: Several reports since Card's death have shed light on authorities' purported missteps ahead of the shootings.

• An August report from an independent commission found that leaders of Card's Army Reserve unit had "failed to undertake necessary steps to reduce the threat he posed to the public," despite knowing he suffered from hallucinations, exhibited increasingly aggressive behavior, had a collection of guns, and made comments about his intentions.
• A July internal military report highlighted the fact that the Army had failed to conduct a recommended follow-up investigation after Card was hospitalized in a psychiatric unit months before the mass shootings took place.

Go deeper: Authorities failed to intervene before Maine mass shootings, report finds

Editor's note: This story has been updated with comment from the Pentagon.