Phillip Adams, the former NFL player who killed six people in April before taking his own life, suffered from stage 2 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, says an expert who studied his brain.
USA Today reported that the announcement of his debilitating brain disease came Tuesday from Ann McKee, a neuropathologist who, as director of Boston University CTE Center, conducted the study.
McKee described Adams' CTE as "severe" while comparing it to what was discovered in Aaron Hernandez, the former NFL star who was convicted of murder in 2015. Hernandez later killed himself.
NBC News, attributing the information to the Mayo Clinic, said CTE is a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head traumas. A CTE diagnosis can only be made after death.
In April, Adams opened fire at the South Carolina home of Dr. Robert Lesslie, 70, killing him and his wife Barbara, 69, and two of their grandchildren, 9-year-old Adah Lesslie and 5-year-old Noah Lesslie. Also killed were two air conditioning technicians, James Lewis, 38, and Robert Shook, 38, the county sheriff's office said, according to Reuters.
Adams, who left the National Football League more than six years ago, died from a single gunshot to the head at his home a short distance from the murder scene.
After the killing spree, York County Coroner Sabrina Gast obtained permission to have Phillips' brain tissue sent for CTE tests with Boston University researchers, according to NBC News.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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