Family of Ex-NFL player who killed 6 in Rock Hill sues SC HBCU over brain injury

Former NFL and S.C. State University football player Phillip Adams killed six people before killing himself outside Rock Hill in April 2021. A doctor later said Adams had brain injuries from repeated head trauma.

Now the family of Phillip Adams has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the South Carolina college where he played football. The lawsuit claims the school failed to provide safety against head trauma and concussions before Adams played in the NFL.

The lawsuit, filed by Adams’ father, Alonzo, on behalf of Phillip Adams’ son, alleges wrongful death against S.C. State University. Phillip Adams’ son is a minor.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Adams family by Rock Hill lawyer Craig Wilkerson and Charleston lawyers Gedney Howe III and Gedney Howe IV just days before the two-year anniversary of the April 7 mass shooting.

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The lawsuit was filed in Orangeburg County civil court and names the college as the only defendant. S.C. State, a historic black college, is in Orangeburg.

S.C. State University officials declined to comment on the lawsuit.

“We do not comment on pending or current litigation,” stated S.C. State spokesman Samuel Watson in an emailed statement to The Herald..

Lawsuit claims Adams head injuries at S.C. State

A doctor in Boston said after examining Adams’ brain that Adams suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE. CTE is a brain condition caused by repetitive head trauma, and sometimes found in former football players.

Phillip Adams played football at S.C. State from 2006 to 2009. The lawsuit claims he suffered head trauma and concussions while playing there.

The school did not “educate Phillip Matthew Adams of concussion and head trauma in collegiate football and the latent neurological damage, illnesses, and decline that arise from those head impacts,” the lawsuit alleges.

The suit also claims S.C. State failed to properly train its employees regarding head injuries while Adams was at the school.

The lawsuit claims Phillip Adams minor son suffered emotional and financial losses when Phillip Adams killed himself in 2021.

Lawsuit states Adams also sustained head trauma in NFL

Adams played for several NFL teams before his career ended in 2015. The lawsuit does not name any of those teams as defendants, but the suit does allege Adams suffered head trauma while playing professional football in the NFL.

“While a player for the San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Oakland Raiders, New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League, Phillip Matthew Adams sustained head trauma,” the lawsuit alleges.

Doctor says Adams had brain injury

In late 2021, a doctor from Boston University who examined Adams’ brain claimed at a news conference in Rock Hill that Adams had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE. CTE is a brain condition brought on by “a history of repetitive brain trauma” in some people such as athletes and military combat veterans.

Adams played for Rock Hill High School before playing for S.C. State and then the NFL.

Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the Boston University CTE Center, said in a December 2021 news conference in Rock Hill that Adams had “stage 2 CT.” McKee said Adams’ “frontal lobe pathology” was “abnormally severe.”

In the news conference in 2021, McKee said Adam’s brain showed extensive damage when it was examined after his death. The brain condition can be determined only after death.

“His 20 years of football gave rise to his CTE,” McKee said in 2021.

The lawsuit filed by Adams’ family against S.C. State University cites McKee’s CTE findings.

Adams killed six people, then himself

York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson said in 2021 that Adams, 32 at the time, shot and killed Dr. Robert Lesslie, his wife Barbara Lesslie and two of their grandchildren, Adah, 9, and Noah, 5. Two HVAC workers at the Lesslie home that day — James Lewis and Robert Shook of North Carolina — also died after being shot.

Tolson told The Herald last week that the motive for the shootings remains unclear and the criminal investigation into the killings has been closed by detectives.

Adams killed himself after deputies surrounded his home, not far from where the victims were found. The Herald and Charlotte Observer were first to report York County Coroner Sabrina Gast sent Adams’ brain to experts to be tested.

During his career, Adams had multiple concussions, according to Gast and McKee.

Gast told The Herald Adams last week her office had no new information on the Adams death since the CTE results in 2021.

Other legal filings

The Herald was the first to report in late 2021 that Shook’s widow filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit in South Carolina against the estate of Phillip Adams.

In court filings afterward in 2022, lawyers for Shook stated they were seeking information from several NFL teams about Phillip Adams’ medical history.

That lawsuit was withdrawn by Shook and her lawyers in June 2022, court documents show.