PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A tissue pattern from the mind of a gunman who killed 18 folks and injured 13 others in Maine has been despatched to a lab in Massachusetts to be examined for indicators of harm or trauma associated to his service within the Military Reserves, officers mentioned Monday.
The state’s chief medical expert desires to know if a mind harm stemming from 40-year-old Robert Card’s military service may have contributed to uncommon habits he exhibited main as much as the Oct. 25 shootings at a bowling alley and at a bar in Lewiston .
A spokesperson for the medical expert’s workplace characterised the additional step as a matter of thoroughness “as a result of mixed historical past of navy expertise and actions.”
“In an occasion reminiscent of this, persons are left with extra questions than solutions. It’s our perception that if we are able to conduct testing (in-house or outsourced) that will make clear a few of these solutions, we have now a accountability to try this,” Lindsey Chasteen, workplace administrator, wrote in an e mail.
The gunman’s physique was found two days after the shootings in a close-by city. The medical expert already concluded that Card died by suicide.
The tissue samples, first reported by The New York Times, have been despatched to a laboratory at Boston College that focuses on issues related to mind trauma, together with persistent traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which has plagued many professional football players. A spokesperson mentioned the CTE Heart can’t remark with out the household’s permission. Two members of the family didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from The Related Press.
The considerations encompass Card’s publicity to repeated blasts whereas coaching U.S. Navy Academy cadets about weapons, anti-tank weapon and grenades at West Level, New York.
Card was assigned to the third Battalion, 304th Regiment, in Saco, Maine, beginning in April 2014 and through that point he educated others on the way to use hand grenades, the Military mentioned.
A Pentagon spokesperson mentioned Monday that the Military is collaborating in research to attempt to higher perceive the connection between “blast overpressure” and mind well being results, and within the meantime it has instituted a number of measures to scale back troopers’ publicity, together with limiting the variety of personnel close to blasts.
“The Military is dedicated to understanding, mitigating, precisely diagnosing and promptly treating blast overpressure and its results in all kinds. Whereas extended blast exposures may be doubtlessly hazardous, even when encountered on the coaching vary and never the battlefield, there’s nonetheless loads to study,” Lt. Col. Rob Lodewick mentioned in an announcement.
Relations and buddies reported that Card had develop into paranoid habits that preceded him being hospitalized for 2 weeks final summer season throughout coaching with fellow reservists at West Level. Amongst different issues, Card thought others have been accusing him of being a pedophile.
His fellow troopers have been involved sufficient that his entry to weapons was restricted when he left the hospital. At the least one of many reservists particularly expressed considerations of a mass capturing.
New York and Maine each have legal guidelines that may result in elimination of weapons for somebody who’s experiencing a psychological well being disaster, however these legal guidelines weren’t invoked to take his weapons.
Legislation enforcement officers in Maine have been warned about considerations from Card’s fellow reservists. However Card didn’t reply the door at his Bowdoin dwelling when deputies tried to examine on his well-being a number of weeks earlier than the shootings.
Observe David Sharp on X, the platform previously generally known as Twitter, @David_Sharp_AP
