Texts reveal fellow Army reservist feared Maine gunman would 'snap and do a mass shooting'
An Army reservist warned authorities about the man who killed 18 people in Maine last week, saying a month earlier he feared the gunman would "snap and do a mass shooting," police records revealed on Wednesday.
A staff sergeant identified only as “Hodgson” notified fellow reservist Kevin Mote, who is also police corporal in Ellsworth, Maine, about their fellow soldier's erratic behavior and threats of violence, according to newly released records.
"And yes he still has all of his weapons," the staff sergeant texted Mote in mid-September. "I believe he's going to snap and do a mass shooting."
Hodgson's warning proved tragically prophetic, as the man went on to kill 18 people a week ago Wednesday when he opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar and grill in Lewiston.
Hodgson called himself a friend of the future killer's and described the man's worsening mental health.
"I believe he's messed up in he head," Hodgson wrote. "I love [him] to death but i do not know how to help him and he refuses to get help or to continue help."
The killer had drawn concern from his fellow reservist, telling them he heard imaginary voices calling him a pedophile, according to an accompanying memo written by Mote.
Ellsworth is about 120 miles northeast of Lewiston, where last week's deadly attacks unfolded.
During a training stint at West Point in July, the gunman lashed out at his fellow reservists, who included Oxford County Sheriff Christopher Wainwright and Androscoggin County Sheriff's Deputy Matthew Noyes, over these imaginary slights during a beer run.
The future killer got in the face of one soldier and shoved him, and then locked himself in his hotel room and refused to come out, according to Mote's memo.
Soldiers eventually got a key to the man's room, took him to the base hospital and then to Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital in Katonah, New York, where he spent 14 days before being released, according to Mote.
Hodgson told police that the future killer had threatened to "shoot up the drill center and Saco and other places," in apparent reference to the U.S. Army Reserve Training Center in Saco, Maine, Mote wrote.
"He also said he [is] going to get 'them,'" according to the police officer.
Mote and his superiors asked the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office to check on the future gunman, who lived in that jurisdiction, the officer's memo said.
The officer wrote that "I would rather err on the side of caution" because the reservist "is a capable marksman and, if he should set his mind to carry out his threats made to Hodgson, he would be able to do it."
