Army Reserve commander defends units response to Lewiston shooters mental health [Video]

Robert Card’s battalion commander in the Army Reserve said Monday that his team did not have the authority to do anything more to force Card to accept mental health treatment before he killed 18 people in Lewiston last October.

Testifying virtually before the commission investigating the shooting, Lt. Col. Ryan Vasquez reiterated many of the same points Card’s other commanders have repeatedly emphasized: Reserve commanders have little-to-no power over their soldiers except on drill weekends, the leaders of the Saco unit received only limited information about Card’s medical status after he was hospitalized last summer, and the Army expected the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office would do more to confront Card after he threatened the unit in September.

“I’m not sure what else we could have done,” Vasquez said. “I don’t know a lot of average Reserve units that would have handled that better than we did.”

In particular, he defended his unit’s failure to follow …