[ad_1]
Investigators believe Adams, 32, forced his way into Dr. Robert Lesslie’s home in Rock Hill and shot Lesslie, his wife and the two grandchildren in a room, as well as two air conditioning technicians outside, York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson said.
Killed were Lesslie, his wife Barbara Lesslie, two grandchildren ages 5 and 9, and air conditioning technician James Lewis, of Gastonia, North Carolina, authorities said.
The surviving technician — who contacted his employer and said he’d been shot, moving the employer to call 911 — was in critical condition at a hospital as of Thursday morning, Tolson said.
Investigators do not yet know what led to the shootings, though they believe Adams was the only assailant, Tolson said.
“There’s nothing about this right now that makes sense to any of us,” the sheriff said.
Something that Adams left at the home led investigators to believe he was the gunman, and they went to a home about a quarter of a mile down the road, where he was staying with his parents, Tolson said.
Officers removed the parents from the home, and tried to contact Adams. Eventually, officers found him dead, Tolson said, though they did not hear gunshots.
Adams died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, York County Coroner Sabrina Gast said.
“He treated me in the past at his clinic. … he knew everyone, he treated everyone with respect,” Tolson said.
Adams played for several NFL teams
A South Carolina state official confirmed to CNN Thursday that Adams played in the NFL.
Adams played as a defensive back from 2010 to 2015 for teams including the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Oakland Raiders, New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons.
The shooting
Authorities were called around 4:45 p.m. to the Lesslies’ home just south of Rock Hill, Tolson said. The city of about 73,000 people is located on the other side of the state line from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Tolson played two 911 calls for reporters at a news conference Thursday. In one, the air conditioning technicians’ employer tells a 911 operator that an injured worker had just called him about the shooting.
“(The worker was) screaming that he had been shot, and the other technician … had been shot and was non-responsive,” the caller tells the 911 operator.
Doctor had been practicing in area since 1981
Trent Faris, the York County Sheriff’s Office’s spokesperson, said Thursday he knew Lesslie, and that “Dr. Lesslie was my doctor growing up.”
“Dr. Lesslie has been one of those people that everybody knows. He started Riverview Medical Center in Rock Hill and it has been a staple in Rock Hill for years,” Faris said.
“If you are from Rock Hill and you are from around this area, the people who are involved are very prominent and very well known in York County,” Faris said.
CNN’s Joe Sutton, Devon Sayers and Justin Lear contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link