Heavily-redacted forensic evaluation of Lewiston gunman Robert Card leaves questions unanswered
A review from the Defense Health Agency does not publicly address whether Card had a service-related brain injury
A review from the Defense Health Agency does not publicly address whether Card had a service-related brain injury
A review from the Defense Health Agency does not publicly address whether Card had a service-related brain injury
A military analysis of Lewiston gunman Robert Card leaves some key lingering questions unanswered.
Much of a 22-page forensic evaluation from the Defense Health Agency, dated Aug. 14, 2024, is redacted.
The document was provided to Maine’s Total Coverage in response to a public records request.
When the U.S. Army Reserve’s report on Card was released last summer, it was sent to the Center for Forensic Behavioral Science at Walter Reed Military Medical Center for expert analysis.
Speaking with reporters before officials made their report public last July, Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, the former leader of the Army Reserve, was asked whether officials believed Card had a service-related traumatic brain injury.
"I am going to defer that to Walter Reed Medical Center," Daniels said during the briefing.
The cover page of the evaluation describes the reasons for referral, stating, "Due to the appearance of conflicting medical opinions, a determining opinion on whether SFC Card's mental illness in July 2023, which resulted in hospitalization, was in the line of duty?"
Card was a grenade range instructor and may have been exposed to thousands of low-level blasts.
"I strongly believe that Robbie had a traumatic brain injury. I think that he was able to function really well for a long time," said Card’s sister, Nicole Herling, speaking with Maine’s Total Coverage in an interview on March 2, before the evaluation was released.
Herling and her husband, James, share the belief expressed by the Boston University CTE Center that Card had traumatic brain injuries, which likely played a role in his symptoms.
Last summer, the then-leader of the Army Reserve told reporters that Card was likely injured off duty, referencing information provided by the Card family.
"The fall from the house on a ladder, I believe, is the injury that took place. The amount of exposure that he had to other shock is relatively minor," Daniels said.
The document offers no publicly available insight into whether Four Winds Hospital in Katonah, New York, where Card was hospitalized for mental health treatment, complied with the standard of care.
"We don't have the records from Four Winds. But what I do understand is that he had threatened people, had a hit list when he was at Four Winds. That would have been really concerning for me to know as a sister," Herling said in the March 2 interview.
The Defense Health Agency explained the redactions, stating that some portions of the document are exempt from release "due to being internal records that are deliberative in nature and part of the decision-making process."
The DHA cited another exemption, which they claim allows records to be withheld "when disclosure of such information would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."