Phillip Adams’ brain – former NFL player which police say killed a South Carolina doctor, three family members and a repairman before the fatal shooting – will be tested for a degenerative disease that has affected a number of professional athletes and has been shown to cause violent mood swings and other cognitive disorders, according to the local lawyer.
York County coroner Sabrina Gast said in a statement Friday that she had obtained approval from Adams’ family to have the procedure included as part of her autopsy, which will be performed at South Carolina Medical University. The hospital will work with Boston University, whose center for chronic traumatic encephalopathy is conducting research on the long-term effects of repetitive brain trauma in athletes and military personnel, according to its website.
According to police, Adams went to Robert and Barbara Lesslie’s home on Wednesday and shot two of their grandchildren, 9-year-old Adah Lesslie and 5-year-old Noah Lesslie and 38-year-old James Lewis. year old. air conditioning technician from Gaston, who worked there. He also shot Lewis’s colleague Robert Shook, 38, of Cherryville, North Carolina, who was taken to a hospital in Charlotte, where he was in critical condition “fighting hard for life.” sa, ”said a cousin, Heather Smith Thompson.
York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson said investigators did not realize why Adams committed the attack.
Tolson said evidence left at the scene of the shooting led investigators to Adams as a suspect. He said they went to Adams’ parents, evacuated them and then tried to persuade Adams to leave. Eventually, they found him dead from a single gunshot wound to the head in a bedroom, he said.
It will be months before the results are available for tests for chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE, which can only be diagnosed at autopsy. The disorder was found in former members of the army, footballers and boxers and others who were subjected to repeated head injuries. A recent study found signs of the disease in 110 of 111 NFL players whose brains were inspected.
A few years ago, the league agreed to pay $ 1 billion to retired players who claimed to have misled them about the dangers of playing football.
Adams, 32, has played in 78 NFL games in six seasons for six teams. He joined the 49ers in 2010 as a seventh-round draft pick in South Carolina and, although he rarely started, he continued to play for the New England, Seattle, Oakland and New York Jets before ending his career. with the Atlanta Falcons in 2015.
As a rookie at the end of the 2010 season, Adams suffered a serious ankle injury, resulting in surgery that included several screws in his leg. He never played for the 49ers again, released just before the start of the 2011 season. Later, along with the Raiders, he had two contusions in three games in 2012.
It was not immediately clear whether he had sustained concussion injuries. Adams would not have been eligible for testing as part of a broad agreement between the league and his former players in connection with such injuries, as he did not retire until 2014.
Adams’ father told a Charlotte television station that he blamed football for his son’s problems, which could have led him to commit violence on Wednesday.
“I can say he’s a good kid – he was a good kid and I think football confused him,” Alonzo Adams told WCNC-TV. “He didn’t talk too much and didn’t bother anyone.”
Adams’ sister told USA Today that “her brother’s mental health has deteriorated rapidly and terribly badly” in recent years, and that the family has seen “extremely worrying” signs of mental illness, including growing temper and neglect of personal hygiene.
In a statement to McClatchy Newspapers, Adams’ parents and siblings sent their condolences to the Lesslie, Lewis and Shook families, saying, “The Phillip we know is not a man capable of the atrocities he committed on Wednesday.”
Relatives went on to say that they do not know “whether football played a role” in the violence, but “we know that there must be a catalyst”.
Gerald Dixon, a former NFL linebacker who retired in 2001, said that when he coached Adams in high school, the young player was a team leader, but also gentle and humble.
Dixon added that he spoke with Adams a few months ago and did not notice any signs of depression or other mental health issues. “Every time I talked to him, he was always happy and just remembered old things,” he said.
Dixon acknowledged that repeated head injuries sustained in the game could have affected Adams, as they negatively affected many of the other NFL players Dixon knew, who were later diagnosed with CTE.
“You never know what’s going on in a person’s mind after going through these contusions,” Dixon said.
Agent Scott Casterline told the Associated Press that Adams did not participate in physical and mental health programs that are easily accessible to former players.
“I encouraged him to explore all of his handicap options and he wouldn’t do that,” Casterline said, noting that Adams’ career was marred by an ankle injury in 2010. “I knew it hurt and he lost football, but he won’t take it. “He said he would do it, but he wouldn’t.”