Maine shooter had evidence of brain injury, BU researchers find
Could have been factor in breakdown, they say; no CTE
Robert R. Card II, the man who killed 18 people in a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, in October, had evidence of significant traumatic brain injury at the time of the shootings, according to an analysis of his brain tissue by researchers from Boston University that was released Wednesday by Card’s family.
The statement also includes what is believed to be the first public apology from the Card family for the attack.
Researchers at BU’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy center said the injuries detected in his brain likely contributed to Card’s symptoms in the months leading up to the attacks. Card was a US Army Reservist and a longtime weapons instructor who worked at an Army hand grenade training range, where it is believed he was exposed to thousands of low-level blasts.
The BU scientists said their analysis revealed “significant degeneration, inflammation, small blood vessel injury,” and other damage to “the nerve fibers that allow for communication between different areas of the brain.”
“These findings align with our previous studies on the effects of blast injury in humans and experimental models,” said Dr. Ann McKee, director of the BU CTE Center, which is carrying out the post-mortem study of Card’s brain at the request of the Maine chief medical examiner’s office. “While I cannot say with certainty that these pathological findings underlie Mr. Card’s behavioral changes in the last 10 months of life, based on our previous work, brain injury likely played a role in his symptoms.”
However, McKee said the center found no evidence of another form of brain injury, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the condition that silently destroys the minds of athletes after years of repetitive hits and that can only be diagnosed after death.
Before the shootings, Card’s fami
ly, friends, and colleagues repeatedly raised concerns about his increasingly delusional, paranoid behavior, warning law enforcement about his potential for violence.
He was hospitalized in July after members of his Army Reserve squad called police.
On Oct. 22, he typed out a note on his cellphone that he was “having issues,” and “he’s had enough and he’s trained to hurt people,” according to Maine State Police.
Three days later, Card, 40, besides killing 18, wounded more than a dozen in a rampage at a bowling alley and nearby bar in the worst mass shooting in the state’s history. A massive, twoday hunt ended when authorities found Card dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Christopher Nowinski, who runs the Concussion Research Foundation, which released the findings on behalf of the Card family, said McKee’s probe is now “shifting from a diagnosis to a research investigation.”
“Understanding traumatic brain injury as we’re understanding human behavior is a piece of the puzzle,” said Nowinski, who also helped found the BU’s CTE Center. “It doesn’t explain everything, but we’re all confident that some traumatic injuries can change an individual’s behavior.”
He said there’s a “growing understanding that repeated low-grade blasts can change the structure of the brain,” and this type of research can help grow the understanding of how it happens and what the effects are.
While traumatic brain injury has been called the “signature wound” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, due to the widespread use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), it’s only in recent years that researchers have turned their attention to the impact of smaller, subconcussive blasts of the sort Card experienced.
In December, scientists from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the Naval Medical Research Command published the most compelling evidence to date that chronic exposure to smaller explosions is damaging. Using cutting-edge imaging techniques to examine the brains of nine Special Operations personnel repeatedly exposed to lowlevel blasts, they documented inflammation in the brain, which also occurs in people who later may develop neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
In the statement Wednesday, Card’s family offered an apology for the killings.
“We want to begin by saying how deeply sorry and heartbroken we are for all the victims, survivors, and their loved ones, and to everyone in Maine and beyond who was affected and traumatized by this tragedy,” the family wrote in the statement. “We are hurting for you and with you, and it is hard to put into words how badly we wish we could undo what happened.”
The family said they hope releasing the findings about his brain injuries can support “ongoing efforts to learn from this tragedy to ensure it never happens again.” The Cards also wrote that the brain injury “does not fully explain Robert’s actions, nor is it an excuse for the horrific suffering he caused,” but that they hope to raise awareness of traumatic brain injury among military service members.
Asked about the apology, Leroy Walker Sr., whose son, bar manager Joseph Walker, was gunned down at Schemengees Bar & Grille, said, “I don’t think it changes anything, to tell you the truth.”
“To me, what I’m hearing there doesn’t matter,” he said, adding it was the first he’d heard from the family. Walker added he’s not surprised the examination found something wrong, because, “average, normal people don’t do a mass murder.”