(NEW YORK) — Less than a week before back-to-back mass shootings in Maine last month, alleged gunman Robert Card threatened employees at a New Hampshire bakery that he might “snap” on them, according to a police report obtained by ABC News.
What could have been another clue for law enforcement days before the Oct. 25 mass shootings in Lewiston would come too late: the report of the incident was made to police after the fact, on Oct. 26.
Hudson police told ABC News that once the bakery employees saw Card on the news, they flagged their own encounters with him.
According to the report, Card had been making deliveries to the bakery in Hudson, New Hampshire for “approximately six months,” one of the employees told police.
This police report also answers, at least in part, what had remained an open question: where Card had been working in the time leading up to the shootings.
As ABC News has previously reported, Card had worked at the recycling plant where police ultimately found his body, but he had “left voluntarily late last spring,” according to the company.
On Thursday, Oct. 19, Card told bakery employees that he “knew” they “were talking about him,” and stated, “Maybe you will be the ones I snap on,” according to the police report.
One of the employees told police “It seemed [Card] may have been hearing voices,” as they had not been saying anything about him.
One employee told police Card did “get in his face” but that “no direct threats were made.”
Six days later on the evening of Oct. 25, Card would open fire at a bar and a bowling alley, claiming 18 lives and injuring 13 more, according to police.
For two days after the shootings, Card was on the run from authorities. While Card evaded police, the bakery staff made their report — his access to the delivery vehicle was something they specifically flagged.
One of the employees warned Card “may have access” to a delivery truck from the company he was employed by, Hudson police told ABC News.
The incident report notes the bakery employee “also advised the business should not be receiving any shipments tonight as Lewiston is locked down.”
Card had previously displayed erratic behavior while on his delivery route, bakery employees told police.
When he first began making the bakery’s deliveries, Card had made a “strange comment,” stating, “I’m not gay or a pedophile, but just show me where the bread goes,” according to the Oct. 26 incident report.
The last time the bakery staff said they saw Card was around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 24, the night before the shootings, according to the incident report.
Hudson police told ABC News once they received information about Card from the bakery, it was forwarded to the FBI.
This latest revelation marks another in a growing string of missed warning signs ahead of the back-to-back bloodshed in Maine last month.
Card’s comments to the bakery employees echo others he had made — comments that had seriously concerned his family and his fellow soldiers alike — that he would, indeed, “snap.”
In May, Card’s ex-wife and their teenage son went to police with similar issues: Card’s son worried his father’s “mental health is in question” and was “likely hearing voices or starting to experience paranoia,” a “re-occurring theme” as Card claimed derogatory things were being said about him, “such as calling him a pedophile,” according to a separate incident report previously obtained by ABC News.
A mid-September letter from Card’s army reserve training supervisor to local law enforcement warned that Card had been “hearing voices calling him a pedophile, saying he has a small d**k, and other insults. This hearing voices started in the spring and has only gotten worse.”
A series of distraught text messages from one of Card’s fellow Army reservists warned their training supervisor that Card’s mental health was on the decline and that he could pose a “threat to the unit” and “other places,” that he was armed and dangerous, and that he “refused to get help,” according to documents previously obtained by ABC News.
“Change the passcode to the unit gate and be armed if sfc card does arrive. Please. I believe he’s messed up in the head,” those texts said.
“And yes he still has all of his weapons,” the texts continued. “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.”
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