EX-JET KILLS FIVE
Guns down doctor, wife, their grandkids & self in S. Carolina
A former New York Jets cornerback fatally shot five people in a South Carolina home, including a beloved doctor and his two young grandchildren, then turned the gun on himself, local police said Thursday.
Phillip Adams, 32, who played for the Jets in 2014, gunned down Dr. Robert Lesslie, 70; his wife, Barbara Lesslie, 69, and their grandkids ages 5 and 9 Wednesday evening in Rock Hill, according to authorities.
An air conditioning technician who had been working at the home, 39-year-old James Lewis, was also shot to death outside, and a co-worker was hospitalized with “serious gunshot wounds,” the York County sheriff’s office said.
After the rampage, Adams shot himself in the head in a bedroom at his parents’ house with a .45-caliber weapon, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
Authorities said a motive has not yet been determined.
“There’s nothing right now that makes sense to any of us,” York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson said at a press conference Thursday.
But Adams father, Alonso Adams, blamed the shootings on his son’s years in the NFL.
“I think the football messed him up,” the distraught dad told Charlotte television station WCNC.
A source told The Associated Press that Adams had been treated by Lesslie, who lived near his parents’ home, but cops would not confirm that the player had been the doctor’s patient.
Police said a 9-mm. firearm was also found at the scene, but it’s unclear which gun was used in the killings. Tolson said there was no evidence that either gun was bought illegally.
Tolson said that Adams forced his way into Lesslie’s house, based on evidence at the scene. After an eight-hour manhunt, police found Adams dead inside his parents’ home just down the road. Officials said he died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
During the press conference, Tolson played two 911 calls, one from a man who said two of his technicians had called him to say they’d been shot, and another from a neighbor who had been outside cutting his grass when he heard about 20 gunshots.
“All I can say is we pray for the family,” Adams’ dad told WCNC. “I know they were good folks down there. We’re going to keep them in our prayers.”
Lesslie had been practicing in Rock Hill since 1981, according to his bio page at Riverview House Calls & Riverview Hospice and Palliative Care, which he founded.
He and his wife lived with “their golden retriever, Moses, several miniature horses, goats, donkeys, chickens and a lot of bees,” according to the web site.
The couple had four adult children and nine grandchildren.
“We are truly in the midst of the unimaginable,” members of the Lesslie family said in a joint statement read by Tolson. “The losses we are suffering cannot be uttered at this time.”
Adams spent six seasons in the NFL, playing for the San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Oakland Raiders, Jets and Atlanta Falcons after being drafted out of South Carolina State University. He appeared in 12 games with the Jets in 2014 and recorded 21 tackles.
Adams suffered a severe ankle injury as a rookie in 2010. He had two concussions in 2012 while with the Raiders, but it’s unclear whether he suffered long-lasting effects from the head injuries.
The latest mass shooting to hit the nation came as President Biden on Thursday introduced measures to curb gun violence, including tightening regulations for buyers of “ghost guns” and pistol-stabilizing braces like the one used in Boulder, Colo., in a shooting last month that killed 10 people.
The White House measures came a day after the South Carolina House of Representatives approved a “Constitutional Carry” bill that would let residents openly carry guns without a permit.