How Rock Hill killer's rampage unfolded: 911 calls reveal neighbor heard '20 gunshots' when ex-NFL player Phillip Adams stormed into doctor's home, killing him, his wife, two grandchildren and a repairman before turning gun on himself
South Carolina police have released two 911 calls placed moments after former NFL player Phillip Adams shot dead five people and wounded a sixth before taking his own life.
One of the calls, which were both placed at about 4.45pm on Wednesday, came from a man who said he heard about 20 gunshots at his neighbor's home in Rock Hill.
'I think we've had some trouble,' the caller said. 'I think there's been a bad shooting. Maybe four people.'
The second call came from a coworker of the sole survivor of the shooting, who told dispatchers that the victim, Robert Shook, called him and said: 'I've been shot, call 911!'
The caller said Shook was slurring his speech and speculated he'd been struck in the head or face.
Less than 10 minutes later deputies with the York County Sheriff's Office arrived at the home of Dr Robert Lesslie to find Shook wounded and his colleague James Lewis dead.
Inside the home Dr Lesslie, 70, was also found dead, along with his wife Barbara, 69, and their two grandchildren, nine-year-old girl Adah and five-year-old boy Noah.
Investigators soon identified 32-year-old Adams, a cornerback who played six seasons in the NFL up until 2015, as the gunman and went to his parents' house down the road, where he was living, to apprehend him.
For hours police tried to convince Adams to come outside and surrender, before he was found dead of a single self-inflicted gunshot to the head at 2.37am Tuesday.
Authorities are still working to determine the motive behind the killings that stunned the tiny South Carolina community where the Lesslie family had lived for four decades.
The graphic above shows where the five victims were killed at the Lesslie home, compared with where Adams killed himself. Authorities are still working to determine the motive behind the killings that stunned the tiny South Carolina community where the Lesslie family had lived for four decades
Adams' former doctor, Robert Lesslie ( left and right), was killed at his home in Rock Hill, South Carolina on Wednesday afternoon, along with his wife, two grandchildren and a man who was working on the family's property at the time
Dr Lesslie, his wife Barbara, their two grandchildren, Adah Lesslie, 9, and Noah Lesslie, 5, were killed in the shooting on Wednesday. The four victims are circled above in red in a family photo
'There's nothing right now that makes sense to any of us,' York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson told reporters at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
It came as US Congressman Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina who knew the Lesslie family, revealed that Adams was a patient of Dr Lesslie.
He said the doctor had recently stopped prescribing Adams pain medication.
Norman, who described himself as a close friend of Dr Lesslie and his wife, said he was told by law enforcement that withholding medication from Adams, who suffered multiple concussions in his football career, led to the deadly attack.
A person briefed on the investigation also told The Associated Press earlier that Adams had been treated by Lesslie - however authorities have yet to confirm that claim.
Adams' father, Alonzo Adams, told WCNC that his son's being a football player was to blame for the tragedy.
'I can say he's a good kid,' the father told the station. 'I think the football messed him up.'
Adams had only recently moved in with his parents in Rock Hill, just a two-minutes drive from Dr Lesslie's home. The athlete had a criminal history, which included assault and weapons charges.
Sheriff Tolson opened his press conference by reading a statement from the Lesslie family, which said in part: 'While we know there are no answers that will satisfy the question "why," we are sure of one thing: we do not grieve as those without hope.
'Our hope is found in the promise of Jesus Christ, and we are enveloped by peace that surpasses all understanding.
'To that end, our hearts are bent toward forgiveness and peace. Toward love and connectedness. Toward celebration and unity.'
Tolson said the Lesslies were found suffering from gunshot wounds just before 5pm in one room of their home and were pronounced dead.
Lewis, an air conditioning repairman who had been working at the property, was the first victim discovered in the driveway of the home.
His colleague Shook, was also in the driveway with multiple gunshot wounds. Tolson described Shook's condition as 'very critical'.
Police were called to the home in the Rock Hill area at around 4.45pm after gunshots were heard. Pictured above are some members of the victims' family, including Dr Lesslie and wife, Barbara (circled in red), who were killed
Adah, 9, and her brother, Noah, 5, were the children of Dr Lesslie's son, Jeff (pictured above). Both were shot dead at their grandparents' home on Wednesday by their neighbor Phillip Adams
A SWAT vehicle is seen outside the gate at the Lesslies' property on Marshall Road after Wednesday's mass shooting
Police launched a massive manhunt for Adams on Wednesday evening after finding unspecified evidence linking him to the killings.
Officers, K-9 teams and helicopter crews spent hours scouring the area before locating Adams at his parents' home on Marshall road, about a quarter-mile from the Leslie property.
Adams' father Alonzo said officers came to his house on Wednesday night and led him and his severely disabled wife out of the residence.
Allison Hope, who lives across from the Adams' modest one-story brick home said police allowed her to return home around 9pm Wednesday.
Moments later, a vehicle pulled into their driveway and law enforcement quickly surrounded the property.
She said officers spent hours negotiating with Adams, using a loudspeaker and sending in a robot to scan the house. She said authorities repeatedly asked Adams to come out, and promised to get his disabled mother out safely, before Adams shot himself.
'This is something I can't grasp yet. I can't put it all together and I'm trying to, and I witnessed it,' Hope said. 'I feel bad for him because if it was mental or something going on in his life or whatever, you know, he needed help, and that's the sad part.'
Alonzo said his son had recently moved to Rock Hill from Fort Mill.
'I don't think he ever did anybody any harm,' he said of his son. 'He didn't talk much and he didn't bother nobody.'
Alonzo added that he knew the Lesslie family, and that Dr Lesslie had treated him in the past.
'All I can say is we pray for the family,' Alonzo said. 'He used to be my doctor a long time ago. I know they were good folks down there. We're gonna keep them in our prayers.'
Police used helicopters and drones to look for the shooting suspect on Wednesday. They also sent a robot inside Phillip Adams' home and negotiated with him through a loudspeaker before he took his own life
An ambulance is seen at the scene, where one person was found with serious gunshot wounds
A York County sheriff's deputy is parked on Thursday outside the Lesslie residence where multiple people, including a prominent doctor, were fatally shot a day earlier in Rock Hill, South Carolina
York County Sheriff's spokesman Trent Faris described Dr Lesslie as a 'pillar' of the Rock Hill community.
'I've lived in Rock Hill my entire life and Dr Lesslie was my doctor growing up,' Faris said. 'Dr Lesslie has been one of those people that everybody knows. He started Riverview Medical Center in Rock Hill and it's been a staple in Rock Hill for years.'
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster tweeted on Thursday about the 'tragic and heartbreaking' shooting
'We are shocked that this type of incident happened here,' Faris continued.
'None of us can figure out why. It doesn't happen here. It's one of those strange things that a lot of people are going to have a hard time understanding and we just hope that everybody understands that we're going to do everything we can to try to figure out why this happened here in Rock Hill, South Carolina.'
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster released a short statement on Twitter, calling the killings 'tragic and heartbreaking'.
Adams' father Alonzo Adams (left) said his son was 'a good kid' and that 'football messed him up'. The father also revealed that Adams (right) had only recently relocated to Rock Hill, South Carolina
While playing with the Oakland Raiders, Adams sustained two concussions in 2012, but missed only one game that season
Family members told WBTV Shook is a married father of three from Cherryville. He has undergone multiple surgeries and was fighting for his life.
'He is a hard-working man who put himself through school to become a certified hearing and air service worker, to provide for his family,' Shook’s cousin, Heather Michele, told the station. 'He is just a wonderful, wonderful man.'
WSOC reported that both Shook and Lewis worked at Gaston Sheet Metal Services in Gastonia.
Lewis' parents told the local station that he was their only child and was a single father of three children, a 16-year-old and 13-year-old twins.
'I keep on expecting to wake up, "Oh, it was just a bad dream," but it’s not. It’s real,' Tom Lewis, James' father, said. said. 'I would like to find out why this guy did what he did.'
James' mother said he was working as an HVAC technician to provide for his three children.
'He helped anybody, he was a kind guy, a great dad. It’s just so stupid,' mom Linda Tucker said.
Gaston Sheet Metal Services shared a post on its Facebook page on Thursday morning addressing the shooting involving two of its employees.
'Both men involved in this incident are long-standing, beloved members of our family at GSM. These men embody the values we strive to achieve at GSM and are family focused, up-beat, and wonderful team members who cared about all the people they encountered,' the post read.
Robert Shook, an HVAC technician, was shot multiple times outside Lesslie's home while doing work along with his colleague, James Lewis, who was killed. Shook is a married father of three
James Lewis, 38, was an HVAC technician who was working at Lesslies' property when he was shot and killed by Adams. He is an only child to his parents and was a single father of three
The Lesslies' lived in a spacious home on a large tract of land with an estimated value of more than $1million (pictured)
Lesslie, a well-respected doctor who had treated Adams, is pictured playing the piano with his granddaughter Adah, who was among the people killed on Wednesday. No motive has been determined
Adams, a cornerback out of South Carolina State, was a seventh-round NFL Draft pick in 2010. Although he was never a standout in the league, he did play in 78 games over five seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Oakland Raiders, New York Jets, and Atlanta Falcons.
His best seasons came in his two years in Oakland, where he appeared in 31 games and recorded a pair of interceptions.
Rarely a starter, Adams finished his career with the Falcons in 2015.
Adams earned just over $3million over parts of his six NFL season, according to Spotrac.com.
Adams suffered multiple injuries over the course of his football career, including a pair of concussions, which he sustained while playing for the Oakland Raiders in 2012. Despite that, he only missed one game that season.
Raiders spokespeople in Las Vegas did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment on Thursday.
Whether he suffered long-lasting concussion-related injuries wasn’t immediately clear. Adams would not have been eligible for testing as part of a broad settlement between the league and its former players over such injuries, because he hadn’t retired by 2014.
Adams often isolated himself, even as a player, his agent, Scott Casterline, told the AP. Casterline said he spoke regularly with Adams’ father, who left him a voicemail Wednesday morning.
'He was part of my family. I loved him. He’s a great kid, a great guy. This is so unlike him. He had to not be in his right mind, obviously,' Casterline said.
'All of us who knew Philip are shaking our heads. He struggled away from the game. I tried to get him to come to Texas. I was going to find him a job, but he wouldn't leave South Carolina because he had a son. He was a good father.
'Seeing Philip shoot two kids, it's not him. I can't fathom it. It's devastating for the victims and the families,' Casterline said.
As a rookie late in the 2010 season, Adams suffered a severe ankle injury that required surgery that included several screws being inserted into the leg. He never played for the 49ers again, getting released just before the 2011 season began and signing with New England. Only in 2013 with the Raiders was he on a roster for a full season.
Adams had a criminal record, which included an arrest in 2009 on charges of misdemeanor assault and battery, although he was not convicted. He was also arrested in Charlotte for carrying a concealed gun in 2016.
In 2009, Adams' mother, Phyllis Adams, was involved in a horrific car wreck that has left her severely disabled and wheelchair-bound.
In an interview with The Times and Democrat in 2010, Phillip was quoted as saying: '[My mother] is my motivation,” he said. “We can look through life, and you go through adversity. This is one of the biggest things I have had to deal with.'
Former Cowboys cornerback Kevin Smith, who trained Adams leading up to the 2010 draft and after he entered the league, said he was a hard worker. He and Casterline both said Adams had opened a shop selling smoothies and juice before COVID-19 hit, and emphasized he didn’t drink or do drugs.
'He didn’t drink not one bit of alcohol,' Smith said. 'He was a bit of a neat freak. In his house, everything was precisely placed.'
Adams (left and right) was an football cornerback who played in the NFL. He was drafted in the seventh round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers
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