Card’s fatal outburst at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar on October 25th has propelled the state’s chief medical examiner to seek answers in a rather unusual but increasingly necessary way. Tissue samples from Card’s brain have been sent to a specialized lab at Boston University, well-known for its research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a condition tied to repeated head injuries and widely recognized in professional athletes, especially football players.
This unusual step comes from concerns about Card’s behavior before the events, hinting at a possible brain injury from his time with the Army Reserves. Family and friends had noted a shift towards paranoid behavior, a marked change accentuated by a hospitalization due to mental health concerns last summer at West Point.