NQI Analysis: Robert Card, Lewiston, ME, USA (25.10.2023)
There was something odd about the Lewiston mass shooting incident
Who was Robert Card?
The opening paragraph via Wikipedia of the 2023 Lewiston shootings:
Image: Robert Card entering Just-In-Time Recreation Bowling Alley (source: Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office/Wikipedia)
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1. Does the situation meet the FDA Blackbox warning rule: ‘BEHAVIOUR THAT IS UNUSUAL?’
What caught my attention: Usually mass-shootings in the US don’t really interest me. There are just so many. Yet, when the Lewiston shooting story broke the first story via The Guardian got me interested. Maine shootings: police surround farmhouse owned by suspect’s family in Bowdoin. Key excerpts:
A note was reportedly found in the home of the suspect in the course of a search, according to senior law enforcement officials speaking to NBC New York, who said it was being studied for any ways it could guide the investigation. Red Flag 1: Possible mass shooting incident followed by suicide.
Mike Sauschuck, Maine commissioner of public safety, said Card had mental health issues and was released this summer after a short stay at a treatment facility. Sauschuck said Card, from Bowdoin, about 15 miles east of Lewiston, reported hearing “voices in his head” and made threats to carry out a shooting at a national guard base in Saco. Red Flag 2: Voices in the head can mean schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a recognised condition attributed to quinoline drugs like mefloquine.
A clearer picture of Card’s background began to emerge. An account on X, formerly Twitter, was suspended by the social media giant, but not before screenshots began to circulate of likes and retweets praising far-right figures. Red Flag 3: Links to far-right figures might also mean that Robert Card might have been persuaded to take alternative treatments for Covid-19. One of those alternative treatments was hydroxychloroquine, a drug closely related to mefloquine.
There was some general info on his US Army service but this more detailed paragraph from the Thursday via The New York Times was intriguing. What We Know About the Maine Shooting Suspect. Key excerpt:
The U.S. Army’s public affairs office at the Pentagon said Mr. Card is a sergeant first class in the Army Reserve who enlisted in December 2002. He was trained as a petroleum supply specialist, whose work involves shipping and storing vehicle and aircraft fuel. Mr. Card has not served on any combat deployments and is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in Saco, Maine, according to an Army spokesman. Note: The US Army said something very quick, specific and odd? Mr Card has not served on any combat deployments…
Militaries don’t release information quickly or willingly and I thought that odd too. I’ll come back to this point.
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2. Was the person(s) exposed to antimalarials. If YES… what type, duration and were there multiple exposures?
Not confirmed but POSSIBLE
Not confirmed but possible via four different vectors, which is a lot. My first thoughts:
Scenario 1: Robert Cards first unit deployed to Iraq in 2003. That unit was extended, twice…
On the 26th October, the day following the shootings the US Army made the following statement to Fox News:
An Army spokesperson confirmed to Fox News on Thursday morning that Card has been in the Army Reserve for over two decades, receiving multiple awards for his service.
"SGT 1st Class Robert R. Card II is a Petroleum Supply Specialist in the Army Reserve, enlisting in December 2002. He has no combat deployments," Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee said.”
Robert Cards initial unit, the 439th Quartermaster Company was deployed to Iraq in early 2003 and extended twice, not returning until August 2004. If he got posted into a unit that was deployed, he may have been put on standby or prepared as a ‘replacement’. Preparation for Iraq may have included antimalarial courses. Malarial chemoprophylaxis for Iraq in 2003/2004 was mefloquine.
Image: Facebook conversation between Robert Card and colleague, most likely the week commencing 5th June 2023 (source: Facebook/Heavy).
Scenario 2: What is the Humanitarian Service Medal?
The Army spokesperson went on to state:
"His awards include the Army Achievement Medal, Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal x2, Humanitarian Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon."
I wondered why no one questioned this at the time but you can only get the Humanitarian Service Medal for just a few Operations. A quick scan on Wikipedia brought up three specific Operations:
Image: US Department of Defence approved Operations for the Humanitarian Service Medal (source: Wikipedia)
The US Army was very specific that Robert Card had no ‘combat deployments’. They didn’t say he had ‘no deployments’. As an example, a lot of the countries mentioned in the Geographic area (note 1) for Hurricanes Eta and Iota are malarial zones where the recommended antimalarial chemoprophylaxis is mefloquine or tafenoquine.
Image: Malaria-endemic destinations in the Americas and the Caribbean (source: CDC)
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Scenario 3: Robert Card was a fan of Donald Trump Jnr and Donald Trump Jnr loved hydroxychloroquine!
Robert Cards weird and quite limited X history included a like of a Donald Trump Jnr tweet in 2023. He seemed to really only follow conservative or far-right thinkers, individuals like Tucker Carlson.
The reason why the connection to Donald Trump Jnr is interesting is because of his 2020 video that was pulled from social media but would be quite easy to find. The BBC covered the story in some detail. Hydroxychloroquine: Why a video promoted by Trump was pulled on social media. Excerpt:
The taking down of a viral video by social media companies has reignited a highly-charged controversy in the US over the use of the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine.
In the video, members of the group America's Frontline Doctors promote it both as a preventative measure and as a cure for Covid-19.
The World Health Organization (WHO) say "there is currently no proof" that hydroxychloroquine is effective as a treatment or prevents coronavirus.
The video was broadcast online by right-wing online platform Breitbart, viewed over 17 million times on Facebook. It was also shared on Twitter by Donald Trump and many of his supporters.
The president's son, Donald Jnr, was suspended from tweeting for 12 hours by Twitter after he posted it on his account.
According to Drugs.com the side effects of hydroxychloroquine include anxiety, confusion, feeling that others are watching you or controlling your behaviour, feeling that others can hear your thoughts, feeling, seeing, or hearing things that are not there, headache, loss of hearing, nervousness, nightmares, severe mood or mental changes, unusual behaviour.
For the record that same site also states that the incidence of psychosis, suicidal behaviour and nightmares is very rare (less than 0.01%).
Funny thing is, Robert had a lot of these symptoms at the same time he got interested in Donald Trump Jnr?
Scenario 4: Something unexpected… A holiday somewhere exotic perhaps?
Then there is always a fair chance that I have missed something. People sometimes go on exotic holidays for no reason, taking the prescribed medications as directed and without thought and don’t record it for posterity. It just gets missed...
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3. How was the person(s) mental health?
Model citizen until 2022. Then turns BAD at age 39. It started with hearing aids
Robert Card as a young man.
Image: Robert Card as a teenager (source: Facebook/Daily Express US)
Via the Daily Beast. Family Reveals Suspected Gunman’s Link to Maine Massacre Sites. Excerpt:
In the aftermath of the carnage, Katie Card, who is married to Card’s brother, told The Daily Beast that their family has been messaging her brother-in-law and urging him to surrender to authorities.
“I have known Rob my whole life,” Card said on Thursday. “He is quiet but the most loving, hardworking, and kind person that I know. But in the past year, he had an acute episode of mental health, and it’s been a struggle.”
She said that Robert Card recently began wearing powerful hearing aids to combat hearing loss. Since then, Card said her brother-in-law has been insisting to his family that he can hear people bashing him—including at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grill, where he’s accused of gunning down 18 people on Wednesday night.
“He truly believed he was hearing people say things,” she added. “This all just happened within the last few months.”
One of the side effects of mefloquine is tinnitus. Hydroxychloroquine side effects include hearing loss, feeling that others are watching you or controlling your behaviour, feeling that others can hear your thoughts and feeling, seeing, or hearing things that are not there.
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4. Were there any confounding variables?
YES. Multiple (and I haven’t covered it all)
Significant weight loss in 2022: Which is weird because according to the literature hydroxychloroquine is associated with weight gain. Yet I found an interesting study in mice that linked hydroxychloroquine (HCQ is its abbreviation) to weight loss! I’m not a medical doctor but the photo of the dead mice is worth considering:
Image: Testing hydroxychloroquine on mice (source: Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China, 2019)
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Paranoia: In the lead up to the Lewiston shootings, Robert Card was highly paranoid. Paranoia is a condition associated with Chronic Quinoline Encephalopathy (otherwise known as Neuropsychiatric Quinism)
Weird X history: X is a right-wing bin-fire. *RobertC20041800 X history was short with limited posts only in 2023 which all seemed to lean into the conservatives at best and the alt-right at worst. I wonder if he spent a lot of 2023 just trawling the internet and leaning into his personal paranoia. It is generally accepted that too much social media can be harmful to mental health.
Robert Cards reported issues with hearing in late 2022: Which is noteworthy.
Auditory hallucinations after getting hearing aids fitter in Feb 2023: By early 2023 he was needing hearing aids. Via NBC. Card, a firearms instructor and a longtime Army reservist, began to hear voices that were saying “horrible” things about him about a couple of months ago when he was fitted for high-powered hearing aids, according to Katie Card, who is married to his brother. “She said his mental health had deteriorated quickly. He was picking up voices that he had never heard,” she told NBC News. “His mind was twisting them around. He was humiliated by the things that he thought were being said.”
Silencers & Self-Reporting: Via CBS News. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives confirmed to CBS News in a statement Tuesday that the also gunman attempted to purchase a silencer at a Maine gun shop "a few months ago." The gun shop, however, which was not identified, declined to sell him the silencer because of a response Card provided to a question on an ATF form required by all Federal Firearms Licensees to potential buyers, the ATF said. The gunman responded "yes" to the question "Have you ever been adjudicated as a mental defective OR ever been committed to a mental institution?"
The Card Family requested help in May 2023: Via CBS News. Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry said in a Monday evening statement that his office was contacted in May by members of the reservist's family concerned over his mental health and access to weapons.
The 304th Infantry Regt reported him for a serious mental health issue in Jul 2023: Via CBS News. Three months before the deadly shooting rampage in Lewiston, Maine, leaders of the gunman's Army Reserve unit said he was "behaving erratically," and the Army decided he shouldn't have a weapon, handle ammunition or "participate in live fire activity," according to an Army spokesperson… After he underwent a medical evaluation over his behavior while training at the U.S. Military Academy in New York in July, the Army determined he was "non-deployable due to concerns over his well-being," Lt. Col. Ruth Castro, an Army spokesperson, said in a statement to CBS News. His company commander was notified of the restrictions, according to Castro.
Two weeks in Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital: West Point's Keller Army Community Hospital for psychological evaluation then two-weeks in a mental health facility. Which is considered a long stay (now). He was not tested for TBI at the time (he was a Petroleum Operator, not a Grunt).
Prescribed Lithium: Which indicates the prescribing doctor(s) were unsure but thinking it might be bi-polar or schizophrenia. There was nothing in his file to indicate exposure to antimalarials (war service in Iraq) or blast-injuries (he was in the Ordnance Corps).
His unit then asked for a welfare check in Sep 2023: Via CBS News. In September, his unit asked the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office in southern Maine to perform a "health and welfare check" on the reservist, Castro said earlier Monday. The request was made "out of an abundance of caution after the unit became concerned for his safety," Castro said. She didn't provide additional details, citing an ongoing Army investigation. Wikipedia notes: after he punched a fellow reservist who asked Card to stop talking about "shooting up places and people"
Missed opportunities. No one could find Robert in Sep 2023: Via CBS News. Merry said in the statement that in September on two occasions, a deputy couldn't find the reservist at his home in Bowdoin, prompting the sheriff to send an alert asking authorities throughout the state to look out for him. Before the shooting, he had made threats against his military base and other soldiers, according to the AP.
Missed opportunities. Roberts police alert was cancelled on the 18th October: Via CBS News. A sheriff's deputy then contacted his unit commander and the reservist's brother, Merry said. He claimed that the commander said they were trying to get treatment for the (reservist) and that his brother would try to "secure any firearms" that the reservist had access to. The alert to other law enforcement agencies to locate the person in question was cancelled on October 18 — one week before the mass shooting.
Recent job loss at Recycling Plant in Oct 2023: The loss of employment can be deeply personal and he either walked himself or was asked to go in the fortnight before the shootings. It was also reported by co-workers that he had been acting erratically and threatened violence at his workplace. He took his own life at his former workplace so there was a connection.
The Suicide Note: Prior to the attacks, Robert Card wrote a note to his son. It was not released at the time of the attacks.
Pet Ops are strange: Must be the fumes.
Lastly, a confirmed TBI: This new information only became public in early 2024. Via PBS News.
An Army reservist who shot and killed 18 people in Maine last year had evidence of traumatic brain injuries, according to a brain tissue analysis by researchers from Boston University.
There was degeneration in the nerve fibres that allow for communication between different areas of the brain, inflammation and small blood vessel injury, according to Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center.
The analysis was released Wednesday by the family of reservist Robert Card. 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 brain injury played in Card’s decline in mental health. McKee made no connection between the brain injury and Card’s violent actions.
One last thing. I would have thrown a 100-odd grenades in my time over a period of ten years. I was never exposed to any blast injuries. Grenade ranges are set up specifically to avoid blast waves. The consensus that Robert Cards brain injuries came about because of low level pressure blast waves from grenades is a stretch. Quinolines do cause brain damage and no one has done any research on the long-term effects of antimalarials such as mefloquine, tafenoquine or hydrochloroquine.
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5. Was there a specific clinical event or trigger?
It was a slow 10-month decline
Boston University are stating that Robert Cards mental health issues started approximately 10-months before the shootings. At the same time his hearing was failing.
What changed in late 2022?
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6. Other considerations?
YES
There are no easily accessible photos of Robert R. Card II
There are no photos of Robert Card in uniform. There is the perp photo, the fishing photo, the active shooter photo. Not one in uniform. For a proud 20-year man, that is a bit strange.
Robert Card destroyed the evidence. His brain
I suspect the reason Boston University was testing brain tissue was that they didn’t have an intact brain. Also, brains decompose with 24-hours. If Robert Card suicided soon after the shootings his brains would have been jelly? I need to establish the time of death via the FOI records.
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ASSESSMENT
POSSIBLE (more information required). There is more to this story.
Of all the NQIs I have reviewed, Robert Card is the one I am the most confident had Neuropsychiatric Quinism. This NQI can get upgraded to Probable if I can confirm he had an antimalarial at some stage.
There are 3,000-pages I need to review. More to follow…
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UPDATES
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REFERENCES
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