ROCK HILL, SC (AP) – Former NFL player Phillip Adams shot five people, including a prominent doctor, his wife and their two grandchildren, before committing suicide early on Thursday.
York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson told a news conference that investigators had not yet established a motive for Wednesday’s mass shooting.
“There’s nothing that makes sense to us right now,” said Tolson.
Dr. Robert Lesslie, 70, and his wife, Barbara, 69, were pronounced dead at their home in Rock Hill, along with grandchildren Adah Lesslie, 9, and Noah Lesslie, 5, according to the York County coroner’s office.
A man who had worked at the Lesslie house, James Lewis, 38, from Gaston, was found shot outside. A sixth victim, Robert Shook, 38, of Cherryville, North Carolina, was flown to a hospital in Charlotte, where he was in critical condition “fighting hard for his life,” said a cousin, Heather Smith Thompson.
At Thursday’s press conference, Tolson played audio from two 911 calls, the first from an HVAC company employing Lewis and Shook. One of the men, the caller said, had called him “screaming” and said he was shot and his colleague had been shot and “didn’t respond.”
“I think there was a bad shooting,” said another man on a second emergency call, who said he was mowing his lawn outside and heard “about 20” shots were fired at Lesslie’s house before calling someone. left the house.
Tolson said evidence on the spot led authorities to Adams as a suspect. He said they went to Adams ‘parents’ house, evacuated them, and then tried to talk Adams out of the house. They eventually found him dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
Tolson said both a .45 caliber and 9mm weapon were used in the shooting on Wednesday.
A person briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press earlier Thursday that Adams had been treated by Lesslie, who lived near his parents’ home. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak in public.
Tolson, however, would not confirm that Adams had been the doctor’s patient.
Lesslie worked for decades as an emergency room physician, certified in both emergency medicine and occupational medicine, and served as the medical director of emergency care at Rock Hill General Hospital for nearly 15 years, according to his website.
He and his wife had four children and nine grandchildren, and were actively involved in their church, as well as Camp Joy, which works with children with disabilities and where Lesslie was a week-long camp doctor each summer. On Thursday, Tolson said the family had requested that memorials be made for the camp.
Adams, 32, played in 78 NFL games for six teams over five seasons. He joined the 49ers in 2010 as a seventh-round draft pick from the state of South Carolina, and although he rarely started, he went on to play for New England, Seattle, Oakland and the New York Jets before joining the Atlanta Falcons shut down. in 2015.
As a rookie, Adams sustained a serious ankle injury and never played for the 49ers again. Later, with the Raiders, he suffered two concussions during three games in 2012.
Whether he sustained long-term concussion-related injuries was not immediately clear. Adams would not have been eligible for testing as part of a comprehensive settlement between the league and former players because of such injuries, as he had not retired in 2014.
Adams’ father told a Charlotte television station that he blamed football for his son’s troubles, which is said to have led him to commit Wednesday’s violence.
“I can say he’s a good boy – he was a good boy, and I think football confused him,” Alonzo Adams told WCNC-TV.
Deputies were called to the Lesslies’ home on Wednesday at around 4:45 PM and evacuated neighbors while searching for hours for a suspect.
Allison Hope, who lives across the street from Adams’s parents’ house about a mile from the Lesslies, said police sent her back home around 9pm on Wednesday. Moments later, a vehicle pulled into the Adams driveway and police quickly surrounded the property.
She said they spent hours negotiating with Phillip Adams, using a speaker, and sending a robot to scan the house. She said authorities repeatedly asked Adams to come out and promised to bring his disabled mother out safely before Adams shot himself.
“This is something I cannot yet comprehend. I can’t put it all together, and I try, ”Hope said.
Adams often isolated himself, even as a player, his agent, Scott Casterline, told the AP. Casterline said he spoke regularly with Adams’ father, who left a voicemail for him on Wednesday morning.
‘This is so different from him. He didn’t have to be in his right mind, of course, ”Casterline said, adding that Adams struggled to get out of the match.
“He had an injury in his rookie year. Some teams wrote him off and he had that stigma of a man who got hurt,” said Casterline. as devoted as he was. “
“We encouraged him to explore all of his disability options and he wouldn’t do it,” added Casterline. “I knew he was in pain and missed football, but he wouldn’t accept any health tips that were offered to him. He said he would, but he wouldn’t. ”
“I felt he was lost without football, a little depressed.”
Cowboys cornerback Kevin Smith, who trained Adams, said the former NFL player opened a store of smoothies before COVID-19 hit. Both he and Casterline stressed that Adams did not drink or use drugs.
Lesslie founded two emergency care centers and had traveled across the country giving lectures to an emergency nursing group, according to his website. He wrote a weekly medical column for The Charlotte Observer and became a prolific author. He wrote several sections with advice on how to lower cholesterol and blood pressure and lose weight.
The doctor also wrote a number of collections of what he called ‘inspiring true stories’ from his work.
“I know without a doubt that life is fragile,” Lesslie wrote in one of those books, “Angels in the ER.”
“I believe we should take the time to say the things we feel deeply to the people we care about.”
According to a statement by the Lesslie family, they found themselves “in the midst of the unimaginable,” but their faith assured them that their “hearts are set to forgiveness and peace.”
Kinnard reported from Columbia, SC. Contributors include AP Pro Football Writers Barry Wilner in New York and Rob Maaddi in Philadelphia; Sports writer Josh Dubow in Alameda, California; Legal writer Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia and Nell Redmond in Rock Hill. Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP