The former NFL player who killed five people in a suicide murder in South Carolina on Thursday will be examined posthumously for a degenerative brain disease that was linked to head injuries and irrational behavior, it is shown in -a new report.
Phillip Adams’ family gave the green light to doctors to test for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, a condition commonly associated with football players, Charlotte Observer reported.
The York County Attorney’s Office in South Carolina will conduct the tests, along with Boston University, where a 2017 study found that most football players suffered from some degree of illness.
The results could take up to six months, the newspaper reported.
Adams, 32, was forced into his former doctor’s home on Thursday, killing him, his wife and their two grandchildren.
The athlete also fatally shot an entrepreneur outside the doctor’s house before committing suicide.
Adams’ six years in the NFL were marred by injuries. In his 2012 season with Oakland, Adams suffered two concussions in three games.
Dr. Hallie Zwibel, director of the Sports Medicine Center at the New York Institute of Technology, told The Post on Thursday that Adams may have developed CTE during his career.
“She could have been hit all the time [and] he ended up with only one or two contusions, but the cumulative results he took are so many that it could have caused him to develop a degenerative brain disease, ”said Zwibel.
Zwibel said the illness could help explain what caused Adams to have bloody rages.
“It really affects people to an enormous degree in their ability to enjoy relationships and friends, to really function in the world. They understand each other very frustrated by the deficits they have “, said Zwibel.
“People become more impulsive and reckless in their behavior. They become emotionally unstable, “he added.