Former NFL player Phillip Adams fatally shot five people, including a prominent doctor, his wife and their two grandchildren before killing himself early Thursday.
York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson told a news conference that investigators had not yet determined a motive for Wednesday’s mass shooting.
โThere’s nothing right now that makes sense to any of us,” Tolson said.
Dr. Robert Lesslie, 70, and his wife, Barbara, 69, were pronounced dead in their home in Rock Hill along with grandchildren Adah Lesslie, 9, and Noah Lesslie, 5, the York County coronerโs office said.
A man who had been working at the Lesslie home, James Lewis, 38, from Gaston, was found shot to death outside. A sixth victim, Robert Shook, 38, of Cherryville, North Carolina, was flown to a Charlotte hospital, where he was in critical condition โfighting hard for his life,โ said a cousin, Heather Smith Thompson.
At Thursday’s news conference, Tolson played audio of two 911 calls, the first from an HVAC company that employed Lewis and Shook. One of the men, the caller said, had called him โscreamingโ and saying that he had been shot, and that his coworker was shot and โunresponsive.โ
โI think thereโs been a bad shooting,โ a different man said in a second 911 call, saying he was outside cutting his grass and heard โabout 20โ shots fired at the Lesslie home before seeing someone leave the house.
Tolson said evidence at the scene led authorities to Adams as a suspect. He said they went to Adams’ parents’ home, evacuated them and then tried to talk Adams out of the house. Eventually, they found him dead of a gunshot wound to the head.
Tolson said both a .45-caliber and 9mm weapon were used in Wednesday’s shooting.
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