Army reservist who killed 18 in mass shooting had traumatic brain injuries, medical report finds
A nationwide manhunt was launched after Robert Card carried out the shootings in a bowling alley and bar. Now a medical report suggests brain injuries may have influenced his actions.
Thursday 7 March 2024 15:55, UK
A man who killed 18 people in a mass shooting in the US last year had traumatic brain injuries that likely influenced his actions, according to a medical report.
Army reservist Robert Card, 40, carried out the shootings in a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine, on 25 October.
The massacre sparked a manhunt across multiple states that ended when he was found dead days later, having taken his own life.
The Maine chief medical examiner's office requested the post-mortem study of Card's brain, which was carried out by Boston University CTE Centre and released by Card's family.
The report found evidence of traumatic brain injury, including "significant degeneration" of nerve fibres that allow for communication between different areas of the brain.
Card's family apologised for the attack and said they hoped that publicising the findings of the scan might help "prevent future tragedies".
They said in a statement that they were "deeply sorry and heartbroken" for all the victims, survivors, and their loved ones.
"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," they said.
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The report's findings align with previous studies on the effects of blast injuries, lead author Ann McKee said.
Card was a firearms instructor and worked at an Army hand grenade training range, where he may have been exposed to thousands of blasts, she added.
"While I cannot say with certainty that these pathological findings underlie Mr Card's behavioural changes in the last 10 months of life, based on our previous work, brain injury likely played a role in his symptoms."
Card was suffering an acute mental health episode at the time of the shooting, his family said, and had begun to hear voices that led to him forming a paranoid "manic belief" that others were against him. He spent two weeks undergoing psychiatric inpatient treatment.