Brain sample from a Maine gunman is being examined for injuries related to Army Reserves
PORTLAND, Maine — A tissue sample from the brain of a gunman who killed 18 people and injured 13 others in Maine has been sent to a laboratory in Massachusetts to be examined for signs of injury or trauma related to his service in the Army Reserves, officials said Monday.
The state's chief medical examiner wants to know whether brain injuries from 40-year-old Robert Card's military service may have contributed to unusual behavior he exhibited in the lead-up to the Oct. 25 shootings at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston.
A spokesperson for the medical examiner's office characterized the additional step as a matter of thoroughness “due to the combined history of military experience and actions.”
“At an event like this, people are left with more questions than answers. We believe that if we can conduct testing (in-house or outsourced) that can shed light on some of these answers, we have a responsibility to do so,” Lindsey Chasteen, office administrator, wrote in an email.
The gunman's body was found in a nearby town two days after the shooting. The medical examiner had already concluded that Card had died by suicide.
The tissue samples, first reported by The New York Times, were sent to a laboratory at Boston University that specializes in problems related to brain trauma, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which affects many professional football players. A spokesperson said the CTE Center cannot comment without the family's permission. Two family members did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The concerns surround Card's exposure to repeated blasts while training U.S. Military Academy cadets on rifles, anti-tank weapons and grenades at West Point, New York.
Family members reported that Card had descended into paranoid and delusional thoughts leading up to his two-week hospital stay while training with fellow reservists at West Point. Card thought, among other things, that others accused him of being a pedophile.
His fellow soldiers were concerned enough that his access to weapons was restricted when he left the hospital. At least one of the reservists specifically expressed concern about a mass shooting.
New York and Maine both have laws that could lead to gun removal for someone in a mental health crisis, but those laws have not been invoked to take away their guns.
Law enforcement officials in Maine were alerted to the concerns of Card's fellow reservists. But Card didn't answer the door of his Bowdoin home when officers tried to check on his well-being just weeks before the shooting.
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