The Alarming Findings Inside a Mass Shooter’s Brain

from The New York Times I'm Sabrina. tavernes and this is the. [Music]. daily a mass shooting last Fall by an. Army reservist in Maine prompted my. colleague Dave Phillips to search for. answers about whether the solders. service could have been a factor today. the surprising answer Dave found and how. it may change our understanding of the. effect of Modern Warfare on the human.

brain it's Wednesday March. [Music]. 13th so Dave you've been working on a. series of Stories on injuries to. soldiers in the US Military and last. week there was kind of a sudden and. unexpected Discovery related to that. reporting you'd been doing tell me about. it so what I've been looking into for a.

couple months was the idea that soldiers. can be injured just by firing their own. weapons by standing next to the blast of. a mortar or launching a rocket from a. shoulder fire rocket launcher some of. these big heavy weapons the blast wave. is strong enough to really injure their. brains and I'd been working on that over. a couple months because it's very new. and there's a lot of Uncertain stuff and. I was still working on it in October. when I got a call from The New York.

Times national desk and they said hey. there's been a mass shooting in Maine we. need your help the suspect was in the. military so I dropped everything and got. on it right because you're the guy who. covers military Affairs so they call you. right and the situation was that there's. a 40-year-old man in Maine named Robert. card he'd been a Sergeant First Class in. the Army Reserves for almost 20 years. and he killed several people in a small. town in Maine.

in a restaurant and in a bowling alley. then he goes on the lamb and the whole. region is in lockdown for 2 days and. after a massive Manhunt they eventually. find his body 15 minutes away from the. shooting site he had shot himself in the. head and in the aftermath his family. said that he had been hearing voices. started right after he had gotten some. hearing aids last spring and he grew to. have these nearly constant paranoid.

delusions that people at the supermarket. people on the street even people in his. own family were saying terrible things. about him essentially saying that he was. a pedophile and he grew obsessed with. these delusions that just simply were. not happening the Army saw this and they. tried to intervene and in fact he was. actually hospitalized for two weeks by. the Army But ultimately it was not. enough and he committed these shootings. which killed 18 people and so whenever.

any veteran is involved in any crime our. first move is generally to ask the. Pentagon for that person's background we. want to know is there anything in their. military record that can help us. understand the present by looking at. their military past and so did you find. anything in this main Shooters military. records in the case of Robert card the. answer is really no you know remember. we've been at War for more than 20 years.

and and more than a million people have. deployed many of them multiple times he. had been in the military that whole time. he had never deployed never in Iraq or. Afghanistan never in Iraq or Afghanistan. never even in Germany or Korea huh and. he also had a really humdrum job the. official title for it was petroleum. Supply specialist what does that mean. essentially you're the gas guy who makes. sure that that the tanks and the Humvees. and everything else has enough fuel to.

run uh pretty dull and so there was. nothing at all in his service that. suggested it had anything to do with. what had happened so at this point. you're like okay nothing to see here. this mass shooting is probably totally. unrelated to his time in the military. because he never deployed right well not. quite I actually picked up one thing. that I thought might be really tied to. this and potentially extremely important. and that was his hearing aids what was. it about his hearing aids well here's a.

guy who's 40 years old a young fit guy. who has hearing aids I would expect that. from somebody who worked around. artillery cannons or worked around. mortars worked around tanks in the. military you see it all the time but. this guy didn't seem to have any of that. he's like a petroleum Supply guy and so. I was thinking okay something here. doesn't make sense and I was able to. track down some people who had actually. served next to Robert card in his Plato.

and they said yes he had been a. petroleum Supply specialist years ago. but in 2014 he switched over to a. training Battalion where he was exposed. to lots and lots of blasts and basically. what this Battalion did is every summer. they held a summer camp for Cadets at. West Point that taught them how to use. all sorts of weapons taught them how to. use machine guns grenade launchers. shoulder fired rockets and hand Gren. ades and that's where Robert card worked.

I learned every year in the summer he. was on the hand grenade range where. about 1200 Cadets would come through and. most of them threw two grenades so every. year he's getting exposed in the course. of a few weeks till 2,000 grenade blasts. now according to the military this is. safe this is fine no problem move along. but emerging research like the stuff. that I been reporting about in the.

previous months had shown that this. repetitive Blast from firing your own. weapons can be really damaging and so I. thought okay Robert card was exposed to. a lot of blast Maybe that could help. explain what happened to him so what did. you do next like how do you start to. answer that question well we knew that. the answer would be in Robert card's. brain that if he did have a brain injury. from repeated blast exposure you can see. it and what I learned soon after was.

that the main State medical examiner. knew that too and in fact after he died. they had saved his brain and then. shipped it to Boston where one of the. best brain Labs that looks at traumatic. brain injury is at Boston University. these folks specialize specifically in. documenting CTE in football players and. other contact Sports athletes so David. is the thinking here that maybe Robert.

card had something like CTE that it's. that kind of injuries like we see in. football players well they didn't know. and the only way to figure it out was to. essentially slice his brain into slices. that are about the tenth of a thickness. of a piece of paper and then they look. at it under two microscopes a normal. Optical microscope and a really detailed. electron microscope that can look at. things on a subcellular level and in the.

first microscope they're looking for CTE. which is easy to see they can stain it. brown and it creates these floral. patterns around blood vessels in the. brain but when they looked at it they. didn't find that and if you're just. exposed to blast Maybe that's not a big. surprise because the research suggests. that blast exposure leads to something. else something that really doesn't have. an accepted name yet but in a sense is. damage to the wiring.

that's deep in the brain and under the. second microscope that's essentially. what they found in Robert card's brain. and what they're looking at is sort of. the cables in the brain so your brain. has outside of the brain gray matter. which is where thoughts happen and. inside the brain is white matter that is. essentially wiring that connects all. that gray matter together so it can talk. to itself it can understand itself it. can act but it turns out that when blast.

waves surge through the brain those long. stringy pieces of white matter. essentially get whipped really hard hard. enough that they get frayed or broken. you know think of it like the cable you. use to charge your iPhone you know you. can twist that and twist it up and. untwisted and it'll be fine right but. it's the repetitive over and over that. causes problem so imagine twisting your. iPhone cable 10,000 times and then it. might still be there but you plug it in.

and it doesn't work anymore and so. that's what they're looking at in Robert. card's. brain so the results were definitive. despite never having served in combat. card really suffered pretty severe brain. damage from these repetitive blasts at. this training camp it seems like right. and we have to be careful because we. can't defend L say with Robert card.

right now that not only those grenade. blasts caused this injury but that that. injury caused his behavior what we can. say is that it's a very very good match. it certainly seems that that's the case. and Dave what is the implication of this. well this is something that means so. much more than just what happened to. Robert card or what happened in a. shooting in Maine and that's because for.

years the military has known that blasts. from combat from roadside bombs from. enemy attacks are dangerous and they can. damage the brain but they haven't known. what the effect of training is because. most of the people who served in the. military also went overseas they might. have gotten hit by an IED they might. have experienced something traumatic in. combat and so if they come back with. brain injury. it's very hard to say are those brain.

injuries tied to firing their own. weapons but Robert cards almost like a. control. study we know that he never went. overseas he also never played football. in high school he was never in a serious. car accident he didn't do a lot of. things that could have caused a brain. injury to him as far as we know the only. thing that could have damaged his brain. is this blast injury of working on the. grenade range and so if that is true.

that means that a lot of the brain. injury that is happening in the military. is being caused by the. military that's a big. [Music]. deal we'll be right back.

so Dave what exactly did the military. know about brain damage caused by blasts. and when did it know it well it starts. with the IED problem during the height. of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. around 2005 2006 if you remember. roadside bombs were the leading way that. insurgents were hurting American forces. right and so the United States poured a. ton of money into trying understand okay.

these blasts that these guys are. experiencing these men and women they. appear fine they get up and walk away. but there's something going on. there it's not like you know you're. missing a limb or something so when. someone walks by you you may look. absolutely normal but it's a very. invisible wound the military started. Gathering these stories and even shared. some of these interviews when I came. home I was not the same person and when. I got out I didn't think that I had any.

issues or mental health issues that. would affect me in the civilian life I. found that I was having trouble. controlling my emotions sometimes my. anger soldiers were coming home. complaining to military leaders of all. sorts of problems you know feeling. different acting different thinking. different I ended up losing a job. because I was getting violent started. another job was getting violent there. was real irritable hard to deal with so. I was self-medicating trying to hide you. know feel ings and things like that you.

know had the Suicidal. Thoughts they were almost coming back as. different people and the defense. department poured hundreds of millions. of dollars into this starting probably. around 2008 trying to answer the. question of what kind of blast is. dangerous and why and they started. getting answers but it was still really. murky and so in 2012 they set up a brain. Bank to a essentially collect brains.

from anyone and everyone they could get. who was in uniform because this injury. couldn't be seen through an MRI through. a pet scan through the normal things. that we think of for Imaging the brain. it was too subtle but you could slice it. up and see it in the brain and what they. were seeing was this Telltale scarring. in the white matter and at the same time. there were a lot of families that got. results back from this brain Bank and. saw that characteristic scarring in the.

white matter and they knew that their. loved ones had been affected by blast. and they also knew that enemy blasts. were only a small fraction of what their. loved one experienced and so how could. you untangle what was training caused. and what was caused by the enemy and so. a lot of these families they started. taking this information to Congress in. 2018 they said to Congress the military.

is not taking blast seriously enough. they don't understand it they can't tell. who's injured they need to do something. congress at that point passed a law. forcing the military to look at this. research and figure out how we can track. this but here we are in. 2024 and a lot of those questions are. still not answered and then of course. came card right which seems to give us. something of a new data point a new.

answer that's right because the. military for all of this time they had. kind of been saying well this is. complicated we did some studies but we. still don't have clear answers and they. would hem and ha and essentially use the. lack of a definitive answer as a way to. postpone action but here's Robert card. and he's really important because the. only thing he's been exposed to is. grenade blasts and that's to be safe you.

know something did happen after all. those years of research the military. they finally put in place a safety. threshold that basically said above this. power of blast there could be Hazard and. they use a number for that they measure. blast in 4 pounds per square inch that's. you know the strength of the blast wave. hitting anybody but you know you can. think of that four as a safety level. anything higher probably dangerous. anything lower supposed to be safe and.

that's why card is so important because. if he was only exposed to grenades and. he has a blast injury those grenades. come in not at four not even at 3.9 they. come in at like one PSI or maybe one and. a half so that suggests that this safety. threshold that got put in place is way. off and that's really important not just. for Robert card but for all sorts of. troops who are training right now. because there are many weapons out there.

mortars shoulder fired rocket launchers. big artillery that come in at higher. levels some of them as high as eight or. nine. PSI and what that threshold doesn't take. into account is that we're not just. talking about one blast we're talking. about hundreds or thousands of blasts. and how does that change how any blast. is a threat or a hazard so essentially. all of this study in research didn't.

actually translate into procedures that. kept soldiers safer right you know it's. sometimes frustrating for me to see this. research because there are brilliant. people who are building computer models. that model how energy waves go through. brain matter or they are very carefully. blowing up Lab Rats and then cutting. open their brains to see the effects and. none of that expensive and time. consuming research has any any. difference to the people in uniform Dave.

how many vets are we talking about here. I mean how many people may be suffering. or at risk of this kind of brain damage. do we know the scale here that's a. really hard question to answer we know. that more than. 450,000 people have been diagnosed with. a traumatic brain injury by the military. since. 2000 but that probably leaves out tens. of thousands of people who. like Robert card were exposed to.

repeated blasts and may have a brain. injury but never were diagnosed so the. universe is potentially very. large that's why this is such a huge. deal Dave stepping back for a second you. know it seems like what we're learning. here through this example of Robert. card is kind of bringing us into a. moment where we're sort of rethinking.

what it means to have combat trauma. right like that it might actually have a. lot more to do with the physical blast. than with the mental or psychological. trauma that one goes through in say a. combat. deployment one thing that I've been. reporting about for years is when. soldiers come home different and why you. know and I started out really focusing. on post-traumatic stress disorder and. just the horror of war and how that can.

change and erode your character and then. I learned that traumatic brain injury. can be a big part of that and that those. two things may be Tangled together in. ways that are impossible to unravel but. what's really interesting about Robert. card and other people I've talked to. who've never deployed but they've been. around a lot of blast is if you sent. them into a typical Army Clinic and had. them list their symptoms they would. probably get diagnosed with PTSD they're.

Sleepless they have anxiety they have. panic attacks they are socially. withdrawn they're depressed so there are. all these things that we have long. thought are products of War of combat. that may actually be an underlying. condition that is not related to war at. all you know to put it in the plainest. terms possible it's basically related to. a workplace safety issue that we haven't.

acknowledged or addressed so when Johnny. comes home different from the war it. might not actually be the war it might. not actually be the. [Music]. war but I also think that there's a. broader implication beyond the. military and we can see it in Robert. card right you know here was a man whose. blast injury wasn't understood who did. some something horrendous and so I think.

we have to think. about what is the cost of not doing. anything. here now of course we don't know for. sure that Robert card did this because. of his last injury but we do know that. he had profound injuries deep in his. brain and we also know from talking to. people that he served with that it's not. just Robert card other people that serve. with him on the grenade range are also. struggling you know a number of them are.

getting help for pretty persistent. mental health. problems and one of his best friends was. just recently hospitalized for a. psychiatric crisis and he's now facing a. domestic violence. charge so how do we look at those people. differently now after seeing card and. how do we look at this problem in a way. that tries to prevent that from. happening.

Dave I'm curious if you've heard from. the family of Robert card since this. diagnosis and I wonder what this. diagnosis has meant to them if anything. well they didn't get a choice when his. brain went to the lab that was the. decision of the state which really. wanted to understand in whatever way it. could what had happened but when they. got these results back and the family. sat around their kitchen table listening. to the doctor who had looked into his.

brain and learned there was. damage in a way that I think was really. surprising to. them it allowed them to have some. forgiveness to not see their brother. their son as a. monster but to see him as somebody who. was. hurt kind of gives them a different. story about their.

brother. [Music]. absolutely Dave thank. you thank. you.

we'll be right. back here's what else you should know. today my assessment in the report about. the relevance of the president's memory. was necessary and accurate and fair on.

Tuesday in a tense appearance before the. house Judiciary Committee former special. counsel Robert Herr testified about his. investigation and February report into. President Biden's handling of classified. documents could have written your report. with comments about his specific. recollection as to documents or a set of. documents but you chose a general. pejorative reference to the president. the four hour session quickly descended.

into a brutal partisan fight in his. report her had called Biden quote an. elderly man with a poor memory a. conclusion that had infuriated Democrats. Republicans for their part grilled her. about his conclusion that the evidence. was insufficient to charge Biden with a. crime like here's what I see Biden and. Trump should have been treated equally. they weren't and that is the double. standard that I think a lot of Americans. are concerned. and accused her of protecting Biden you.

exonerated I know that willful rtion has. Mr her it's my time but her made clear. during the testimony that his report had. not cleared Biden of wrongdoing. rejecting a suggestion by democrats that. it. had today's episode was produced by. Jessica Chung CLA tennis and Olivia Nat. with help from Sydney Harper it was. edited by MJ Davis Lyn contains original.

music by Dan Powell and Marian Lozano. and was engineered by Chris Wood our. theme music is by Jim brunberg and Ben. lansberg of. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Sabrina tavernes see you. tomorrow.