ROCK HILL, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) As family, friends and communities continue looking for closure for the Lesslie, Lewis, and Adams families, Rock Hill’s Mayor John Gettys reflecting on the lives lost.
“This is going to take a while — as these other tragedies have, this is going to take a while for many different families and support structures. But at some point, we’re going to realize the best way that we can move forward is to emulate the lives of Robert and Barbara and to continue to create the lifetime so promise that Adah and Noah had, for all of our children and for all of our families. And that doesn’t happen by throwing words around at each other, that doesn’t happen by sitting around and letting somebody else do the work, it happens when we all take an active role to create this community that we believe we can be.”
The York County Sheriff’s Office saying when they arrived at the Adams home they were able to get Phillip Adams’s parents out of the home. Neighbors watching from their porch say they couldn’t believe the scene.
Marshall Road neighbor, Allison Hope saying, “Growing up and being around them you know they are gold give the shirt off their back to anybody, they’re very caring, loving people. It really hit home it hit hard, very hard, heavy heart right now very heavy heart. Because his mom is disabled also and disable more than you know so that’s weighing on my heart to you that she has to go through this also and he actually did it inside the home they live add on sale it’s some thing they’ll have to live with for the rest of their lives and it’s very hard, very hard to understand that.”
Neighbor Allison Hope says there was a great loss for all families involved. And family friends say Phillip Adams was known for football long before his tenure in the NFL playing for Rock Hill High and South Carolina State University. This is video from when he played for the Atlanta Falcons back in 2015.
Phillip Adams’s former coach, Perry Sutton, says, “Philip played played youth sports he played actually on the All-Star team that I coached many years ago. He was I mean went to high school and played that Rock Hill High, won the state championship in football and basketball…. He was a great kid, always respectful, always mannerly….”
The former youth football coach says Phillip Adams was a dad himself and also started a fresh produce stand in underserved parts of Rock Hill’s community, two years ago. More reasons why many who knew him are left wondering how this all happened.
“The prayers are going out for the families affected because it was many families affected. But through prayer, as coming together will figure out a way to overcome this and become better for it. And that means if we have to figure out a way to get mental health, for people that need it, for people who don’t know that they have mental problems…. Because, we’ve got a find a way to help ourselves to handle it,” says Sutton.
In the video above, CN2’s Rachel Richardson is speaking with Rock Hill City leaders and those who knew Phillip Adams and his parents.
