ROCK HILL, S.C. — Former NFL Player and Rock Hill native Phillip Adams had a chronic brain injury called CTE when he shot and killed six people before killing himself in April, officials said Tuesday morning.
Officials have not said, however, that the brain injury is the reason Adams shot the six people at a neighbor’s home.
Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the Boston University CTE Center, told reporters Tuesday at a press conference at the York County Coroner’s Office that Adams had “stage two CTE” — going further to say that his “frontal lobe pathology” was “abnormally severe.” She compared Adams’ brain injury to that of another late and former NFL player, Aaron Hernandez.
CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, is a brain disease brought on by “a history of repetitive brain trauma” in some people such as athletes and military combat veterans, according to the university’s CTE Center.
McKee made the announcement at a news conference with York County Coroner Sabrina Gast and York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson.
The Herald and Charlotte Observer of the McClatchy chain were the first to report April 9 that Adams’ brain would be sent to McKee’s research lab in Boston.
McKee, who has played a key role in researching CTE, established the McKee CTE staging scheme to define severity in CTE.
The mass shooting was a national story that was mentioned by President Joe Biden the next day at the White House.
York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson said Adams, 32, shot and killed Dr. Robert Lesslie, his wife Barbara Lesslie and two of their grandchildren, Adah, 9, and Noah, 5, on that day in April. Two HVAC workers at the Lesslie home that day — James Lewis and Robert Shook of North Carolina — also died after being shot.
Shook and Lewis were shot first outside, The Herald previously reported. Adams then went into the house and shot the four Lesslie family members where they were found in the back of the house in a workout room.
Adams, who lived nearby with his parents, then shot himself as deputies tried to get him out of the family home located on Marshall Road south of Rock Hill.
Adams played football and basketball at Rock Hill High School before going on to play football at S.C. State University and later in the NFL. He spent several seasons as a defensive back with the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons before his career ended due to injuries.
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