COLUMBIA, SC – A sixth person has died in a shooting earlier this week by a former NFL player who also killed four members of a South Carolina family, local officials said Saturday.
According to York County Coroner Sabrina Gast, Robert Shook, 38, an air conditioning technician from Cherryville, North Carolina, died of injuries sustained in the shooting on Wednesday while working at home.
Authorities say Phillip Adams killed Rock Hill doctor Robert Lesslie; his wife, Barbara; two of their grandchildren, 9-year-old Adah Lesslie and 5-year-old Noah Lesslie; and another air conditioning technician, James Lewis, who had worked with Shook at Lesslie’s house.
Adams later shot himself. His brain is now being examined for potential degenerative diseases that have been shown to cause violent mood swings and other cognitive disorders in some athletes and military personnel.
Adams, 32, played in 78 NFL games over six seasons for six teams. 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 have been ineligible for testing due to such injuries as part of a wide settlement between the league and former players, as he had not retired in 2014.