Lewiston mass shooter Robert Card, who killed 18 people and injured more than a dozen others in two Oct. 25, 2023 shootings before dying by suicide at age 40, likely had a traumatic brain injury from his time serving as a hand grenade instructor with the U.S Army, according to his family.
[RELATED: Lewiston Shooter Robert Card’s Army Reserve Unit Was Filled with Cops…]
The family of Card released the findings of a brain tissue analysis on Wednesday through the Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF), in an effort to raise awareness of traumatic brain injuries among military service members.
The Maine Chief Medical Examiner’s office requested the post-mortem study of Card’s brain by the Boston University chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) Center, led by Dr. Ann McKee.
According to Dr. McKee, Card’s brain showed significant evidence of traumatic brain injuries at the time of the shootings.
“Robert Card had evidence of traumatic brain injury. In the white matter, the nerve fibers that allow for communication between different areas of the brain, there was significant degeneration, axonal and myelin loss, inflammation, and small blood vessel injury. There was no evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE),” said Dr. McKee.
“These findings align with our previous studies on the effects of blast injury in humans and experimental models,” Dr. McKee said. “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.”
Card’s family is allowing further study of his brain to continue supporting Dr. McKee’s research.
Card was a U.S. Army Reservist and was a longtime instructor at an Army hand grenade training range, where he was exposed to thousands of low-level blasts, according to CLF.
[RELATED: Cases Less Severe Than Robert Card Triggered Maine’s Yellow Flag Law Firearm Restrictions… ]
In the months leading up to the Oct. 25 shootings, members of Card’s Army Reserve unit and his family reported his deteriorating mental health and increasingly erratic behavior.
Recently released body camera footage shows Card being confronted by law enforcement in July 2023, telling him that he was being transferred from his military barracks to the Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point, NY to speak with a mental health counselor.
Card told police during a wellness check that he believed his friends and members of his unit were talking about him behind his back and calling him a pedophile.
Toward the end of the interview, Card stated that people in his Army unit were scared, because he was capable of “doing something.”
[RELATED: New Video of Lewiston Shooter Confronted by Police Three Months Before Shooting…]
The family of Robert Card released the following statement alongside the findings of the brain tissue anaylsis:
“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. 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. While we cannot go back, we are releasing the findings of Robert’s brain study with the goal of supporting ongoing efforts to learn from this tragedy to ensure it never happens again. We thank the Maine Chief Medical Examiner’s office for requesting the brain analysis. We know it does not fully explain Robert’s actions, nor is it an excuse for the horrific suffering he caused, but we thank Dr. McKee for helping us understand his brain damage and how it may have impacted his mental health and behavior. By releasing these findings, we hope to raise awareness of traumatic brain injury among military service members, and we encourage more research and support for military service members with traumatic brain injuries. Our hearts remain with the victims, survivors, and their families.”
Very kind words from his family. I feel for them the shame they must feel because of what happened.
He was a democrat so we already knew he was brain damaged.
Another pristine product of the woke US Military