NEW: Video Reveals Cops Knew Maine Shooter Robert Card Was Threat, But Thought Confronting Him Was Unsafe

You probably recall the case of Robert Card, who killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, during a shooting spree in October. You immediately got the same Democratic call for more gun control.

But then, there's never the attention to the mental health question that is so prevalent in such cases, and was a problem in this case with Card as well.

Now, there's also more information that there was ample warning that Card was a powder keg about to go off. There were warnings from both people in his family and in the Army to the authorities about his threats. A report that came out last week determined that police knew months before that his mental health was deteriorating, as well as reports that he "was paranoid, hearing voices, experiencing psychotic episodes and possibly dealing with schizophrenia."

The Army had determined he was unfit to have firearms, finding that three months before the shooting he was "behaving erratically," and shouldn't have a weapon or "participate in live fire activity,"

He also was considered "non-deployable due to concerns over his well-being," after a medical evaluation, Lt. Col. Ruth Castro, an Army spokesperson, said in a statement to CBS News.

Now video has been released about the effort to a welfare check on Card. The video is a discussion between someone from the Sheriff's Office and Card's Army Reserve Captain.

The two men agreed: Robert Card’s mental health was failing him, and his threats of committing a mass shooting should not be taken lightly.
But as they spoke on the phone on the morning of Sept. 16, Sgt. Aaron Skolfield of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office and Army Reserve Captain Jeremy Reamer also reached a consensus on another point – confronting Card in his home could put police officers’ lives at risk.
“Obviously I don’t want you guys to get hurt or do anything that would push you guys in a compromising position,” Reamer’s voice says on the grainy video, one of two obtained this week by the Press Herald. “The only thing I would ask is if you could just document it. Just to say he was there, he was uncooperative, but we confirmed that he was alive and breathing. That’s kind of from our end here all we’re really looking for.”

Reamer says at the end that this isn't going to get "better," and Skolfield spoke about talking to Card's brother about where the guns were.

But what did they think was going to happen after they left, if they just determined he was safe, if they knew he was a threat? They knew there was a problem, even mentioning the possibility of him doing a mass shooting. What happened with the firearms?

The father says here he doesn't know what the story is with Robert's guns.

Skolfield also mentioned Card's family is a big name in the area, so they kept it off the police channel. Did that enter into this in any way.?

How do you have all that information but then not do something to ensure that Card is secured and people are safe? Had they tried to secure him during the welfare check, they may have been able to prevent the shooting but they decided they didn't want to confront him. But what are the police for? They're supposed to make these kinds of judgments in the interest of the safety of the citizens.

Stephanie Sherman, the attorney for some of the victims of the Uvalde, Texas, shooting, said with the "whole batch of problems" in this case, she thought that they "quickly could have gotten an order to confiscate the guns, and even possibly put the person in custody. Not criminal custody, but some kind of psychiatric hold.”

But that didn't happen, and an independent review of the matter determined the police acted "reasonably."