Autopsy shows ‘unusually severe’ brain trauma in former Raider who shot 6

ROCK HILL, S.C. — A coroner says an autopsy shows unusually terrible encephalon illness successful the frontal lobe of the erstwhile NFL subordinate accused of fatally shooting six radical successful Rock Hill, South Carolina earlier sidesplitting himself successful April.

The 20 years ex-football pro Phillip Adams spent playing shot “definitely … gave rise” to a diagnosis of signifier 2 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, said Dr. Ann McKee, who examined Adams’ brain.

Authorities person said that connected April 7, Phillip Adams killed Rock Hill doc Robert Lesslie; his wife, Barbara; 2 of their grandchildren, 9-year-old Adah Lesslie and 5-year-old Noah Lesslie; and 2 HVAC technicians moving astatine the Lesslie home, James Lewis and Robert Shook, some 38. Police aboriginal recovered Adams with a self-inflicted gunshot coiled to the head.

The degenerative illness known arsenic CTE is linked to caput trauma and concussions that has been shown to origin a scope of symptoms, including convulsive temper swings and representation loss.

McKee, who directs the CTE Center astatine Boston University, said of 24 NFL diagnosed with the illness aft dying successful their 20s and 30s, astir had signifier 2, similar Adams. The illness has 4 stages, with signifier 4 being the astir terrible and usually associated with dementia.

The 2nd signifier is associated with progressive cognitive and behavioral abnormalities specified arsenic aggression, impulsivity, explosivity, depression, paranoia, anxiety, mediocre enforcement relation and representation loss, McKee said.

But Adams’ CTE diagnosis was antithetic from the different young players due to the fact that it was “unusually severe” successful some of his frontal lobes, said the expert.

The Adams household said successful a prepared connection that they were not amazed by the results, but were shocked to larn however terrible his information was.

“After going done aesculapian records from his shot career, we bash cognize that helium was desperately seeking assistance from the NFL but was denied each claims owed to his inability to retrieve things and to grip seemingly elemental tasks, specified arsenic traveling hours distant to spot doctors and going done extended evaluations,” their connection said.

CTE, which tin lone beryllium diagnosed done an autopsy, has been recovered successful erstwhile members of the military, shot players, boxers and others who person been subjected to repeated caput trauma. One caller survey recovered signs of the debilitating illness successful 110 of 111 NFL players whose brains were inspected.

Adams, 32, played successful 78 NFL games for six teams implicit six seasons. He joined the San Francisco 49ers successful 2010 arsenic a seventh-round draught prime retired of South Carolina State, and though helium seldom started, helium went connected to play for New England, Seattle, Oakland and the New York Jets earlier finishing his vocation with the Atlanta Falcons successful 2015.

As a rookie, Adams suffered a terrible ankle wounded and ne'er played for the 49ers again. Later, with the Raiders, helium had 2 concussions implicit 3 games successful 2012. Because helium didn’t discontinue by 2014, helium wouldn’t person been eligible for investigating arsenic portion of a wide colony betwixt the league and erstwhile players implicit long-lasting concussion-related injuries.

Adams’ sister told USA Today aft the killings that her brother’s “mental wellness degraded accelerated and terribly bad” successful caller years and that the household noticed “extremely concerning” signs of intelligence illness, including an escalating temper and idiosyncratic hygiene neglect.