Evidence of Traumatic Brain Injury Found in Gunman Behind Maine’s Deadliest Shooting

An analysis of the brain tissue of Robert Card—the Army reservist who killed 18 people last year in Maine in the state’s deadliest shooting spree—found significant evidence of traumatic brain injuries, according to a report released Wednesday.

Card, who worked for years as a hand grenade instructor, is believed to have been exposed to thousands of low-level blasts, and the kind of damage found in his brain aligned with that seen in previous studies on the effects of blast injury in humans, according to Dr. Ann McKee, the director of Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center. The shooter’s family released the findings in the hope of helping to prevent future tragedies.

Card, 40, died by suicide after the Oct. 25 shootings at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston. The Maine Chief Medical Examiner’s office requested that the Boston University center conduct a study of his brain, with researchers finding “significant degeneration” in nerve fibers that allow for communication between different areas of the brain, according to McKee, along with inflammation and small blood vessel injury.

Read more at The Daily Beast.