Lesslie founded two urgent care centers and had traveled the country giving lectures to an emergency nurses’ group, his website said. Both he and Casterline emphasized Adams didn’t drink or do drugs. “I felt he was lost without football, somewhat depressed.”Ĭowboys cornerback Kevin Smith, who trained Adams, said the former NFL player had opened a shop selling smoothies before COVID-19 hit. “I knew he was hurting and missing football but he wouldn’t take health tips offered to him. “We encouraged him to explore all of his disability options and he wouldn’t do it,” Casterline added. “It was hard for him to walk away from the game, especially a guy as dedicated as he was.” Some teams wrote him off and he had that stigma of a guy who was hurt,” Casterline said. He had to not be in his right mind, obviously,” Casterline said, adding that Adams struggled away from the game. Casterline said he spoke regularly with Adams’ father, who left him a voicemail Wednesday morning. I can’t put it all together and I’m trying to,” Hope said.Īdams often isolated himself, even as a player, his agent, Scott Casterline, told the AP. She said authorities repeatedly asked Adams to come out, and promised to get his disabled mother out safely, before Adams shot himself. She said they spent hours negotiating with Phillip Adams, using a loudspeaker and sending in a robot to scan the house. Moments later, a vehicle pulled into the Adams’ driveway and law enforcement quickly surrounded the property. Wednesday to the Lesslies’ home, and evacuated the neighbors as they searched for hours for a suspect.Īllison Hope, who lives across from Adams’ parents’ home, about a mile from the Lesslies, said police allowed her to return home around 9 p.m. “I can say he’s a good kid - he was a good kid, and I think the football messed him up,” Alonzo Adams told WCNC-TV.ĭeputies were called around 4:45 p.m. Adams would not have been eligible for testing as part of a broad settlement between the league and former players over such injuries, because he hadn’t retired by 2014.Īdams’ father told a Charlotte television station he blamed football for his son’s problems, which might have led him to commit Wednesday’s violence. Whether he suffered long-lasting concussion-related injuries wasn’t immediately clear. Later, with the Raiders, he had two concussions over three games in 2012. He joined the 49ers in 2010 as a seventh-round draft pick out of South Carolina State, and though he rarely started, he went on to play for New England, Seattle, Oakland and the New York Jets before finishing his career with the Atlanta Falcons in 2015.Īs a rookie, Adams suffered a severe ankle injury and never played for the 49ers again. On Thursday, Tolson said the family had asked that any memorials be made to the camp.Īdams, 32, played in 78 NFL games over six seasons for six teams. He and his wife had four children and nine grandchildren, and were actively involved with their church, as well as with Camp Joy, which works with children with disabilities and where Lesslie served as camp physician for a week each summer. Lesslie worked for decades as an emergency room doctor, board-certified in both emergency medicine and occupational medicine and serving as emergency department medical director for nearly 15 years at Rock Hill General Hospital, according to his website. However, Tolson would not confirm that Adams had been the doctor’s patient. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. 45-caliber and 9mm weapon were used in Wednesday’s shooting.Ī person briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press earlier Thursday that Adams had been treated by Lesslie, who lived near his parents’ home. Eventually, they found him dead of a gunshot wound to the head. He said they went to Adams’ parents’ home, evacuated them and then tried to talk Adams out of the house.
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Tolson said evidence at the scene led authorities to Adams as a suspect.