By Raul Castillo
07 Mar 2024, 16:40 PM EST
Robert Card, the man who killed 18 people in a mass shooting last year in Lewiston, Maine, suffered traumatic brain injuries that likely influenced his actions in the final months of his life, according to analyzes made public Wednesday.
Card, 40, carried out the shootings at a bowling alley and a bar on October 25. The man was found dead by suicide several days later.
The Boston University CTE Center performed a postmortem study of Card’s brain, at the request of the Maine Chief Medical Examiner’s Office. The report was released by the family, as reported by NBC News.
“Robert Card had evidence of traumatic brain injury. “In white matter, the nerve fibers that allow communication between different areas of the brain, there was significant degeneration, axonal and myelin loss, inflammation and injury to small blood vessels,” said lead author Ann McKee in a statement issued by the family and the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
This could be related to the number of explosions near Card during the time he worked as a firearms instructor and at an Army hand grenade training camp, according to the statement.
“Although 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, the brain injury likely played a role in his symptoms,” he adds, according to NBC News.
They detailed that Card’s brain will undergo further studies.
Card’s family apologizes
The family apologized for the attack, according to NBC News, and said they hoped making the scan results public could help “prevent future tragedies.”
“While we cannot go back, we are publishing the findings of Robert’s brain study with the goal of supporting ongoing efforts to learn from this tragedy and ensure it never happens again,” they added.
Likewise, they said they are “deeply sorry and heartbroken for all the victims, survivors and their loved ones.”
They clarified that the new evidence does not fully explain or justify the actions Robert took.
Days after the shooting, the family had warned police about the mental health of the man, who had access to firearms. According to them, they claimed that the shooter allegedly “heard voices” and had episodes of paranoia.
Keep reading:
- Maine suicide gunman Robert Card’s link to New York
- Was Maine gunman Robert Card going after his ex-girlfriend when he committed the massacre?
- “I heard voices and had episodes of paranoia”: new revelations about Robert Card, the Maine shooter