Lewiston mass shooter’s brain tissue being tested for CTE

By Carma Hassan, CNN

(CNN) — Tissue samples from the brain of the shooter who killed 18 people during an October rampage at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Maine have been sent to CTE experts in Massachusetts, according to the state’s medical examiner’s office.

Robert Card, 40, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was found two days after the deadly mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, on October 25 amid an ongoing manhunt across the region for the gunman. His body was found near a recycling center he’d recently been fired from, a law enforcement source previously told CNN.

“The Chief Medical Examiner requested CTE testing be conducted on Robert Card’s brain due to the combined history of military experience and actions,” Lindsey Chasteen, the office administrator of the Maine Office of Chief Medical Examiner, told CNN in a statement. She added the results of the tests would not change Card’s autopsy findings.

Card was a US Army reservist and certified firearms instructor who’d been hospitalized and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation three months before the shooting. He had no combat deployments, according to records provided by the Army.

Results from the tissue tests are expected in six to eight months, according to Chasteen. The samples were sent in late November, the earliest the medical examiner’s office could send them based on the office’s process for preservation.

A spokesperson for Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center, where the samples were sent, declined to comment, citing a policy that they cannot discuss “any current, past or potential cases without written consent of next of kin.”

CNN reached out to Card’s relatives but did not immediately hear back.

CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, can be a debilitating neurological disorder caused by repeated blows to the head. It’s a form of dementia that can include symptoms of depression, anger and forgetfulness and is diagnosed only after death, through brain samples taken from an autopsy.

A federal law enforcement source told CNN the Army gave Card a “Command Referral” to seek treatment for “hearing voices” and for having thoughts about “hurting other soldiers.” A National Guard spokesperson confirmed to CNN that Card was transported to the Keller Army Community Hospital at the US Military Academy for “medical evaluation” after Army Reserve officials reported Card for “behaving erratically.”

Concussion Legacy Foundation CEO Chris Nowinski told CNN anything that causes the brain to move around violently can lead to CTE, including the type of training Army reservists may be exposed to, such as being around explosives or hand-to-hand combat and paratrooper training.

Nowinski’s group collaborates with the Boston University CTE Center, where Card’s tissue samples are being tested. Nowinski has not seen Card’s tissue samples, is not employed by the center and is not a spokesperson for the center.

The Concussion Legacy Foundation and Boston University’s CTE Center have spearheaded much of the research around CTE in the US.

“I don’t think we have enough experience studying veterans in general to understand the risk of CTE, so a lot of people who go into the military already have contact sport exposure, they played high school football or something, and then when they are in service, some aspects of service will expose them to traumatic brain injuries,” Nowinski told CNN.

He points out traumatic brain injuries can also be associated with violent behavior, not just CTE.

“Traumatic brain injuries don’t always lead to a clear diagnosis postmortem,” Nowinski said. And because CTE is best associated with cognitive decline, it can be harder to diagnose in younger people like Card.

“If CTE is found, it proves a history of repetitive traumatic brain injuries, but we couldn’t be certain if the behavior was more associated with the traumatic brain injuries or the CTE,” he added.

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