A specialized laboratory that examined the brain of the gunman responsible for Maine's deadliest mass shooting has found severe brain damage of the type seen in veterans exposed to repeated blasts from the use of weapons.
The lab findings were included in an autopsy report compiled by the Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and released by the shooter's family.
The gunman, Robert Card, was a grenade instructor in the Army Reserve. In 2023, after eight years of exposure to thousands of skull-shaking explosions at a training range, he began hearing voices and suffering from paranoid delusions, his family said. In the months leading up to the October rampage in Lewiston, he became increasingly erratic and violent, killing 18 people and then himself.
His brain was sent to Boston University's CTE Center, known for its pioneering work documenting chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in athletes.
A lab report prepared on February 26 and updated on Wednesday said there was “moderately severe” damage to the white matter that forms the deep brain wiring, with some areas completely missing. Was. The delicate tissue sheaths that insulate each biological circuit lay in a “disorganized mass,” and there was scarring and inflammation throughout Mr. Card's brain, suggesting repeated trauma.
The report said it was not CTE. This was a distinctive injury pattern previously found in veterans who were repeatedly exposed to weapons blasts while on duty.
“It is unclear whether these pathological findings are the cause of Mr. Card's behavioral changes during the first 10 months of his life, but based on previous research, it is possible that brain damage may play a role in his symptoms. The report concludes:
The discovery has significant implications for the military, as Mr. Card had never seen combat or been exposed to enemy fire or roadside bomb explosions. The only explosion that hit his brain was a training incident and the military declared it safe.
Dr Anne McKee, who led the lab and signed the report, said: “Little is known about the risks of blast exposure.” “I think this result should be a warning. Further investigation is needed.”
Congress has asked the military in recent years to study whether explosions caused by repeated fire from heavy weapons can cause brain damage, but the military has moved at a stagnant pace and seen little change on the ground.
Soldiers like Card continue to be exposed to massive blasts from grenades, mortars, artillery and rocket launchers during daily training. And current Pentagon guidelines say absorbing the explosions of thousands of grenades, as Card did during his career, poses no danger to his soldiers' brains.
The Army said in a statement Wednesday that it has issued recommendations in recent months to reduce blast exposure in combat units. “The Army is committed to understanding, mitigating, accurately diagnosing, and promptly treating blast overpressure and all its effects,” the statement said. “Prolonged exposure to explosions can be potentially dangerous, even if encountered on a training range rather than on the battlefield, but there is still much to learn.”
For most of his life, Robert Card was a quiet, friendly and trustworthy man who never caused trouble, his family said. He grew up on his family's dairy farm in Bowdoin, Maine, and his job was driving a delivery truck. He liked to fish at local ponds with his son and often took his nieces and nephews.
“He was always there to do chores on the farm, take care of the kids, eat Sunday dinner,” his sister Nicole Harling said in an interview.
Mr. Card joined the Army Reserve in 2002 and spent his first 12 years as a petroleum supply specialist. In 2014, he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 304th Regiment, a training unit based in Serco, Maine.
Every summer, his 3rd Battalion platoon conducts two weeks of field training for cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, teaching them how to use rifles, machine guns, and shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons. I did. During the course, Card spent most of his time at the grenade range, soldiers said. Each of the 1,200 cadets had to throw at least one grenade. Most pitched twice. Soldiers said Card could easily have been exposed to more than 10,000 explosions over the years.
The Department of Defense has a list of 14 weapons that, in normal use, produce explosions powerful enough to be potentially dangerous to the soldiers using them. Grenades are not on the list. Soldiers in Card's platoon said they were not briefed on the risks of repeated exposure.
In 2022, Mr. Card begins to lose his hearing. His family noticed that he became moody and short-tempered. In the spring of 2023, he began to believe that people at local markets and bars where he liked to play cornhole were talking about him behind his back and calling him a pedophile. He also started losing weight rapidly.
His brothers and sisters tried to intervene multiple times, urging him to seek medical attention. One day, his sister called the VA crisis line. But Mr. Card allegedly confronted his relatives and accused them of conspiring against Mr. Card.
In July, the Army committed Card to a psychiatric hospital for two weeks after he complained of hearing voices and threatened fellow soldiers. His sister said doctors at the hospital prescribed lithium but did not diagnose traumatic brain injury. When he was discharged from the hospital, he stopped taking his medication.
Over the next several months, Mr. Card had numerous other angry and violent interactions. One day, his mother came home and found him crying at the front door, remembering delusions of people talking about him.
He lost his job as a recycling truck driver. Police visited his family home in September and warned him that he was making threats against members of the army unit. Card's brother and his father tried to take the gun away, but Card became angry and told them to leave his property.
Weeks later, when local news reported that a man opened fire at a Lewiston bar and bowling alley, Card's brother saw the video footage and recognized his brother.
As Maine reeled from the loss of life and debate over missed warning signs, Card's brain was shipped to Boston, where researchers examined thin sections of tissue.
“The damage was just enormous,” said Dr. Lee Goldstein, a professor of neurology at Boston University who analyzed Card's brain tissue using an electron microscope.
Goldstein said in an interview that long, cable-like cells called axons, which carry messages deep into the brain, were in tatters. “We're seeing cables with their protective packaging stripped off, cables that are simply lost, cables that are inflamed and sick, and cables that are basically full of cell phone trash bags,” he said. Ta. “These cables control how one part of the brain communicates with other parts. If they're damaged, they can't function properly.”
The discovery is not the first indication that the military has avoided the risk of repeat detonation on grenade instructors.
In 2015 and 2017, Army research teams investigated reports of instructors in Georgia and South Carolina complaining of headaches, fatigue, memory problems, and confusion. The Army collected measurements of the grenade's explosion but did not take extensive measures to limit exposure to the blast.
Similar concerns were raised at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri in 2020. A small study funded by the Army used PET scans to examine the brains of new grenade and explosives instructors. The researchers found that the instructors' brains appeared healthy before they dealt with the explosion. But follow-up scans five months later revealed that their brains had large amounts of an abnormal protein called beta-amyloid, which is associated with Alzheimer's disease.
“There should be no amyloid in young brains. None. Zero,” said Dr. Carlos Leyva Salinas, a neuroradiologist at the University of Missouri who conducted the study. “We were surprised, very surprised.”
Card's sister said the analysis of Card's brain, which the family learned Friday, has changed the way they view the shooting and her brother.
“Thanks to him, I was able to forgive him,” she said. “I know a lot of people are in great pain,” she added. “Maybe we can use what happened to help other people.”
The family wrote in a statement Wednesday: “How deeply saddened and heartbroken are we for all the victims, survivors and their loved ones, and for all those in Maine and beyond who have been affected and traumatized by this tragedy? I would like to start with that.''
“While there is no going back, we are making the results of Robert's brain research publicly available in order to support our ongoing efforts to learn from this tragedy and ensure it never happens again,” the statement continued.
