Profound Damage Found in Maine Gunman's Brain, Possibly From Blasts
The labs findings were included in an autopsy report that was compiled by the Maine chief medical examiners office and released by the gunmans family.
The gunman, Robert Card, was a grenade instructor in the Army Reserve. In 2023, after eight years of being exposed to thousands of skull-shaking blasts on the training range, he began hearing voices and was stalked by paranoid delusions, his family said. He grew increasingly erratic and violent in the months before the October rampage in Lewiston, in which he killed 18 people and then himself.
His brain was sent to a Veterans Affairs laboratory in Boston that is known for its pioneering work documenting chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., in athletes.
According to the labs report, prepared on Feb. 26 and updated on Wednesday, the white matter that forms the wiring deep in the brain had moderately severe damage, and in some areas was missing entirely. The delicate tissue sheaths that insulate each biological circuit lay in disorganized clumps, and throughout Mr. Cards brain there was scarring and inflammation suggesting repeated trauma.
Gift Link New York Times
Uncle Joe
(58,483 posts)causing brain damage.
https://www.stripes.com/opinion/2023-12-22/troops-brain-injuries-weapons-suicide-problem-opinion-12438381.html
Thanks for the thread BootinUp
BootinUp
(47,207 posts)He was a normal guy.
Sucha NastyWoman
(2,759 posts)Disaster = Normal Guy + exposure to brain damaging military blasts + easy access to firearms
Hope22
(1,902 posts)I hope the VA can start finding more answers and relief for these people. I hope that these armaments can become a thing of the past. I remember the days of Peace Talks. I hope that some day we can decide that killing each other is not the answer. As a person who has experienced concussion and its side effects my heart goes out to all who have trained and lived under these conditions. It is heartbreaking and debilitating.
Warpy
(111,410 posts)My first job out of nursing school was in a unit for head injured vets with significant behavior problems. Likely something could have been done to make his life less painful and he and his victims would still be alive.
Old Crank
(3,656 posts)I had to look this one up to remember it.
It is too bad that aside from having guns available like party favours that there are few to none ways to get help for these kinds of issues.
Aristus
(66,487 posts)As a tank crewman, I was subjected to lots and lots of loud blasts during live-fire exercises over the course of my time in the service.
That has never inspired me to go out and blast holes in human beings.
Any possibility that this guy was just a murderous, gun-obsessed asshole?
He gets no post-mortem sympathy from me. "Oh look. He had a syndrome. He had a condition. It wasn't his fault!"