Maine shooter who killed 18 had traumatic brain injury, study says
Ann McKee, the lead researcher and director of the Boston University CTE Center, said the findings suggest that “brain injury likely played a role” in the behavioral changes noted by those who knew Card in the months leading up to the mass killing. The analysis was made public by Card’s family Wednesday in a statement released by the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
The Boston University CTE Center said it carried out the post-mortem study of Card’s brain at the request of Maine’s chief medical examiner’s office.
The examination showed “significant degeneration, axonal and myelin loss, inflammation, and small blood vessel injury” in the brain, McKee said in a statement. But there were no signs that Card suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease thought to be caused by repeated head trauma that affects how the brain works, she said.
The damage was consistent with “previous studies on the effects of blast injury in humans and experimental models,” she said.
Card was in the Army Reserve for more than half of his life but never served in combat deployments, The Washington Post previously reported. According to the statement released Wednesday, Card was a longtime instructor at an Army hand grenade training range, where “it is believed he was exposed to thousands of low-level blasts.”
Zubair Ahmed, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Birmingham in Britain, said blast injuries can be particularly severe because they affect “so many different neurons in different areas” of the brain. The parts of the brain typically affected by blast injuries regulate emotions, impulses and behavior, and can make it harder for some people to control their reactions — leading some to become aggressive, violent and impulsive, Ahmed said.
Experts warned against making a causal link between the brain injuries and Card’s actions. While traumatic brain injury can produce a propensity toward aggression, said Vassilis Koliatsos, a professor of neuropathology at Johns Hopkins University, it does not explain “preplanned criminality of this magnitude.”
In the statement, McKee said she could not “say with certainty” that Card’s brain damage led to the “behavioral changes in the last 10 months” of his life.
Three months before the Maine shooting, Card spent two weeks in a psychiatric facility. In September, sheriff’s deputies attempted to locate him after learning he had made threats against his reserve unit. Card’s sister-in-law, Katie Card, told NBC News that he had developed a “manic belief … that everyone was against him.”
Card’s family said they shared the report’s findings in a bid to prevent future tragedies and to raise awareness of “traumatic brain injury among military service members.” They acknowledged that the brain analysis “does not fully explain Robert’s actions, nor is it an excuse for the horrific suffering he caused.”
They also expressed regret over Card’s actions.
“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’s statement said. “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 the findings of Card’s brain analysis helped them “understand his brain damage and how it may have impacted his mental health and behavior.” They said they would continue to support research in the field by allowing continued exploration of Card’s brain.
Though the Army considers exposure to low-level blasts in controlled occupational settings to be safe, it has faced growing pressure in recent years to investigate the risks of blast injuries — those affecting internal organs as a result of direct or indirect exposure to an explosion. In February, it announced that it was developing a new tool “to help service members protect themselves from the effects of high-pressure shock waves created by heavy weapons when they are fired during training.”
The findings from Card’s autopsy report are “concerning,” an Army spokesman said in an emailed statement, and underscore the need for the Army “to do all it can” to protect soldiers against blast-related injuries. The Army is currently updating guidance on mitigating blast risks, the spokesman said, and is planning a safety campaign that would direct ways to reduce those risks and require tracking exposed personnel.
At a hearing on Thursday before an independent commission investigating the Lewiston shooting, Card’s fellow reservists offered a disturbing portrait of his decline. In an evaluation from April of last year, a supervisor had called Card a “consummate professional” dedicated to his job of training cadets, a commission member noted.
By July, he had begun to unravel. Matthew Noyes, who served in Card’s reserve unit, described how his behavior at a training in West Point so unsettled his colleagues that they called the state police. During the hour long drive to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, Noyes said, Card remained silent the entire time, except for once breaking down in tears.
Devlin Barrett, Perry Stein and Mark Berman contributed to this report.
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