'Breakdown' Episode 2: ‘I Believe He Is Going To Snap'

The FRONTLINE Dispatch

GBH

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The FRONTLINE Dispatch presents: Breakdown (from Maine Public Radio, The Portland Press Herald, and FRONTLINE).

Months before the mass shooting in Lewiston that claimed 18 lives, the gunman’s family and friends were desperately trying to get him help.

His mental health was deteriorating. He was experiencing auditory delusions. And there were multiple warnings about his potential for violence, his access to guns and his threats to do harm.

Six weeks before the attacks, his best friend warned the Army Reserve that he might snap and commit a mass shooting.

Episode 2 begins a two-part examination into the numerous opportunities for intervention that could have changed everything.

To hear the rest of the series, subscribe to Breakdown on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or stay tuned for more episodes on The FRONTLINE Dispatch.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Frontline Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation, committed to excellence in journalism,
0:05.8	and by the Frontline Journalism Fund, with major support from John and Joanne Hegler.
0:12.2	The sun is setting when Sean Hodgson arrives downtown to pick up his tractor trailer.
0:18.4	Right away, he notices that his friend Robert Card's white Subaru isn't in its
0:22.7	usual spot. They both work the late shift for a trucking company in Lewiston, Maine, delivering bread
0:28.7	around New England. They also serve together in the Army Reserve. Sean fills out some paperwork
0:34.6	and makes small talk with his boss who says she hasn't seen Rob,
0:38.3	that he hasn't been in to pick up his keys.
0:42.7	Rob is normally the type of guy who shows up early for work, but for a while he hasn't been
0:48.2	himself. He had been diagnosed with psychosis and was suspicious of nearly everyone. He hasn't spoken to Sean for several
0:56.3	weeks. Sean's not sure what to make of Rob's absence, but he gets in his truck and starts his route.
1:02.7	He's talking with a friend on his headset, when suddenly he's forced to pull to the side of the road.
1:08.9	I just saw a line of police cars and ambulances going
1:12.7	every which way.
1:14.6	That's when his friend tells him the news.
1:16.7	There's an active shooter at a bowling alley
1:19.1	and a nearby bar.
1:21.0	Sean feels a wave of panic.
1:23.1	I know it was caught.
1:24.9	I knew it was him
1:26.0	because of the places that she was naming
1:28.3	off that were being hit.
	...

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