Mass Shooter’s Brain Sent to Lab to Test for ‘Damage’

Officials have sent part of Lewiston mass shooter Robert Card’s brain to be tested for signs that his psychological collapse was linked to damage he may have sustained while working as a grenade instructor.

As part of the search for answers as to why the 40-year-old killed 18 people at a bowling alley and bar in October, the sample was sent for tests at Boston University to see if Card had suffered “maladies caused by repeated hits to the head,” The New York Times reported Monday.

Army investigators told the outlet that his work in the military, which involved grenade training, could have affected his mental state in the lead up to the mass shooting on Oct. 25 which also left 13 injured.

After Card was found dead a few days later, stories emerged of his spiral into mental health issues. Currently it is unclear why he had unravelled, but investigators and an independent panel are hoping to find some answers.

Card was a sergeant first class assigned to the Army Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 304th Regiment. It’s a training unit based in Maine that runs a two-week summer field course for cadets from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, teaching them how to use rifles, machine guns, anti-tank weapons and grenades.

The Times reported that he joined the unit in 2014. He spent much of his time working with grenades and may have been exposed to as many as 10,000 M67 grenade explosions in his time, which could have triggered a condition known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

“The concussion from the grenade is brutal, brutal — it will shake your heart,” a senior platoon member told the outlet on the condition of anonymity. “We have a berm at the range that protects from shrapnel, but it doesn’t protect from the blast. Some guys got a lot. Probably too much.”

Card was left needing hearing aids from age 39. Other personnel on the range, including the anonymous source, had been left with hearing trouble.

Gary Kamimori, a retired Army researcher, said that officers at other training sites had also reported concussions following grenade training.

“They had instructors who would leave the range, have to stop their car on the side of the road and throw up,” Kamimori told the Times, saying that some explosions could cause blasts sounding up to 160 decibels.

“Above 140 decibels, sound can vibrate bone. You feel your body shake. The skull is bone. You are vibrating the brain, the nerves, the connections. Any of those connections get screwed up, you got problems.”

While scientists have found signs of damage caused by such explosions in deceased veterans, it is too difficult to detect when they are alive or whether those injuries will cause psychological issues.

The platoon member said he could not be sure if there was a link between the injuries Card suffered and his deterioration.

Military personnel are now tested for brain injuries upon their return, but as Card was never deployed, he was never tested. However, he was sent for treatment during the summer and concerns about his mental health were raised multiple times.

“In an event such as this, people are left with more questions than answers,” a spokeswoman for the Maine Office of Chief Medical Examiner, Lindsey Chasteen, told the Times. “It is our belief that if we can conduct testing that may shed light on some of those answers, we have a responsibility to do that.”

Lewiston is still reeling from the events of Oct. 25 and many in the community still want more answers. A special exhibition will be opened in the town to remember those lost and display all of the items and photos shared during a time of grief.