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Maine mass shooter’s apparent brain injury may not be behind his rampage, experts say
Boston — Brain injury experts are cautioning against drawing conclusions from newly released and limited information about evidence of a brain injury in an Army reservist who killed 18 people last year in Maine’s deadliest mass shooting.
Boston University researchers who analyzed a sample of Robert Card’s brain tissue said Wednesday they found evidence of traumatic brain injury. The analysis, requested by the Maine medical examiner, found degeneration in the nerve fibers allowing communication between different areas of the brain, inflammation, and small blood vessel injury, according to Dr. Ann McKee of the university’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center.
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Card had been an instructor at an Army hand grenade training range, where it is believed he was exposed to repeated low-level blasts. It is unknown if that caused Card’s brain injury and what role the injury may have played in his declining mental health before he opened fire at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston on Oct. 25.
McKee made no connection between the injury and Card’s violent actions.
“While 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, brain injury likely played a role in his symptoms,” McKee said in a statement released by the Card family.
Mixed reactions
Dr. Alexandra Filippakis, a neurologist who has treated members of the military and others for traumatic brain injuries, said Thursday she would not conclude brain injury played a role in Card’s behavior based on McKee’s description of her findings.
“TBI is a very broad diagnosis, and it looks different in different people. Not everybody has the same symptoms. Not everybody has the same severity of symptoms,” Filippakis said. “There’s no way that you could, with certainty, link that to a particular action.”
Filippakis, who works at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire, said the connectivity damage McKee described is common and can have many causes, including aging, high blood pressure and smoking.
“That could mean so many different things,” she said. “You certainly can’t draw any conclusions from that piece of information.”
But James Stone, a University of Virginia radiologist who has studied repeated low-level blast exposure in the military, said changes to Card’s brain “seemed pretty profound.”
Such injuries can affect impulse control and emotional regulation, he said, and though he doesn’t know if those parts of Card’s brain were affected, “it’s certainly hard to imagine that the level of brain changes that we’re seeing in some way did not contribute to his behavior.”
No CTE involvement?
Chris Dulla, a professor and interim chair of neuroscience at Tufts School of Medicine, said he was surprised that researchers found no evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which has plagued many professional football players.
“It doesn’t seem to be as cut and dry,” he said. “What that speaks to is how varied traumatic brain injuries are, and how difficult they can be to diagnose, even in the postmortem brain sample, when you can study every detail.”
The findings highlight the connection between brain injuries and underlying psychological conditions, Dulla said.
“If you’re already struggling with some kind of psychiatric condition or at risk for some kind of psychiatric problem, brain injuries might be something that can kind of push you over the edge and have that change really come front and center when it might have been sort of a minor underlying thing before,” he said.
Experts say traumatic brain injury can lead to headaches, mood changes, memory loss and sleep issues. Stone said his research has shown repeated exposure to even low-level blasts can result in changes to the brain.
Pentagon says it’s watching closely
The Department of Defense has been “very engaged” in studying the issue, Stone said, and a panel on which he serves is expected to release new guidelines in May for both the U.S. military and NATO allies.
“They’ve been very proactive about this,” he said.
An Army spokesperson on Thursday called the lab findings regarding Card “concerning” and said they “underscore the Army’s need to do all it can to protect Soldiers against blast-induced injury.”
In addition to updating the guidance on risk mitigation, the Army plans to launch a public safety campaign and will begin requiring documentation of training environments and tracking of exposed personnel.
Sean Hodgson, Card’s close friend and a fellow reservist, said Thursday that safety was a top priority at their training range and the blast exercises were well controlled.
“You feel it through you, but it’s mild,” he said.
“I never heard him complain about the blasts,” Hodgson said. “In my opinion it’s one of the safest ranges to be on. I never heard him complain about the blasts.”
Worrisome signs
Six weeks before the shooting, Hodgson texted an Army supervisor about his growing concerns about Card, saying, “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.”
That Sept. 15 message came months after relatives warned police that Card had grown paranoid and said they were concerned about his access to guns.
Card was hospitalized in a psychiatric unit for two weeks in July after shoving a fellow reservist and locking himself in a motel room. In August, the Army barred him from handling weapons while on duty and declared him nondeployable.
In their first public comments since the shooting, Card’s family members apologized Wednesday for the attack, saying they are heartbroken for the victims, survivors and their loved ones.
“We are hurting for you and with you, and it is hard to put into words how badly we wish we could undo what happened,” they said in a statement. “While we cannot go back, we are releasing the findings of Robert’s brain study with the goal of supporting ongoing efforts to learn from this tragedy to ensure it never happens again.”
A U.S. District judge has halted the merger between the makers of Coach and Michael Kors handbags, saying it would reduce competition and hurt consumers.
In her ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon noted that Tapestry Inc. and Capri Holdings are “close competitors” and that the merger would result in “the loss of head-to-head competition” and raise prices for shoppers.
The decision followed seven days of testimony.
In after hours trading shares of Capri fell more than 50% while shares of Tapestry rose 12%.
The ruling came six months after the FTC sued to block Tapestry’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Capri, saying that the deal would eliminate direct competition between the fashion companies’ brands like Coach and Michael Kors in the so-called affordable luxury handbag arena.
The agency also said that the deal announced in August 2023 threatens to eliminate the incentive for the two companies to vie for employees and could depress employees’ wages and workplace benefits. The combined Tapestry and Capri would employ roughly 33,000 people worldwide, the agency said.
The two companies’ brands cover a wide array of items from clothing to eyewear to shoes. Tapestry has been on an acquisition binge for the past several years, and already owns Kate Spade New York, Stuart Weitzman and Coach. Capri owns the Versace, Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo brands.
Specifically, Tapestry’s Coach and Kate Spade brands and Capri’s Michael Kors brand are close rivals in the handbag market. The FTC had said that they continuously monitor each other’s handbag brands to determine pricing and performance, and they each use that information to make strategic decisions, including whether to raise or reduce handbag prices.
Tapestry said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press on Thursday that the decision granting the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction was “disappointing” and “incorrect on the law and the facts.”
“Tapestry and Capri operate in an industry that is intensely competitive and dynamic, constantly expanding, and highly fragmented among both established players and new entrants,'” Tapestry said in a statement. “We face competitive pressures from both lower- and higher-priced products and continue to believe this transaction is pro-competitive and pro-consumer. “
The company said it intends to appeal the decision, consistent with its obligations under the merger agreement.
Capri could not be immediately reached for comment.
Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a published note that the blocking of Tapestry’s acquisition of Capri will come as a blow to both companies.
“For Tapestry, it puts an end to the goal of becoming a bigger house of brands, and it leaves its plans for future growth in tatters,” he said. He noted that in a slower market, Tapestry will now need to rely on pushing its existing brands harder, which he believes will be challenging. He noted that the group could, in time, also look to make smaller acquisitions.
The ruling leaves Capri “in poor shape and, in betting on being acquired, has neglected the hard work that needs to be done to course correct many of its weak brands,” Saunders said.
Capri will either need to find another party to buy it or it will have to embark on a major reinvention plan, he said.
Costco is recalling packages of salmon over concerns they could be contaminated with listeria.
Acme Smoked Fish Corp, the shopping club’s salmon provider, sent a notice to Costco shoppers this week informing them of the recall of Kirkland Signature Smoked Salmon, due to potential contamination with listeria monocytogenes bacteria.
The notice was sent to customers who Costco records show purchased affected fish products between October 9-13. Only packages from lot number 8512801270 are affected.
Customers who purchased the recalled salmon are instructed not to eat it and to return it to a Costco store for a full refund.
“We regret this unfortunate incident and have taken immediate corrective steps to ensure that this issue never happens again,” Acme Smoked Fish Corp. CEO Eduardo Carbajosa said.
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Biden administration rolls out new student debt plan, this time aimed at people with big debts
The Biden administration’s efforts to erase student debt for the 46 million Americans who are carrying college loans have repeatedly hit legal roadblocks. Now, the Department of Education is rolling out a new plan that could provide debt relief to 8 million borrowers who are suffering from financial hardships.
The new plan, unveiled Friday, would provide loan relief for approximately 8 million people with student loans who are suffering financial distress caused by other debts, ranging from medical expenses to costs due to a natural disaster. The Education Department said the proposed rules will be published in the Federal Register in the next few weeks, and that it expects to finalize the regulations in 2025.
President Joe Biden made delivering debt relief to people with student loans a key policy issue of his 2020 campaign, but Republican-led states have sued to block many of those efforts, while the Supreme Court in 2023 ruled 6-3 against his plan to erase up to $20,000 in debt for millions of borrowers.
At the same time, Americans are holding more than $1.7 trillion in student loans, a debt load that has impaired their ability to save or buy a home, among other issues.
“For far too long, our student loan system has made it too difficult for borrowers experiencing hardships, often financial hardships, to access relief,” Education Department Miguel Cardona said on a call with reporters. “It’s not fair, it’s not right and it’s not who we are as Americans.”
How people would get relief
Under the proposal, there would be two ways borrowers could qualify for the debt relief. Some people with student loans could receive forgiveness without an application, with the Education Secretary providing one-time relief to borrowers whom the agency determines have an 80% chance of being in default within two years, Cardona said.
“A big reason why we’re fighting for student debt relief is to address the more than 1 million defaults we see annually in the student loan system,” he said.
The second pathway for loan relief would provide forgiveness after borrowers fill out an application, with the department assessing 17 factors such as the applicant’s overall debt balance, household income, and whether their student loan payments are keeping them from affording basics like housing or health care.
“Financing a college education is supposed to help students climb the economic ladder, not leave them buried in a ditch,” Cardona said.
