Rock Hill tragedy: One year since 6 people killed by former NFL player

ROCK HILL, S.C. (WBTV) - April 7 marks one year since six people were shot and killed at a Rock Hill home by former NFL player Phillip Adams.

Dr. Robert Lesslie, his wife Barbara, their two grandchildren Adah and Noah, and two HVAC workers, James Lewis and Robert Shook, were among those murdered on April 7, 2021.

York County authorities say Adams went on a rampage at the Lesslie’s home on Marshall Road before he took his own life.

In the days that followed, support came from across the country, and in the year since, there has been deep support for the families left behind.

‘They are leaving a legacy.’ The Lesslie family’s dedication to serving others

Months after the shooting, the family of Robert Shook had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the estate of Adams.

”I knew a year was going to come up eventually but I never thought it was going to be this fast,” says Keleigh Shook, his daughter.

She spent the last 365 days without her father, Robert Shook, but one year later - all she can think about is seeing her dad take his last breaths.

”It was like immediate breakdown. We didn’t know what to do. It was more like a panic attack type of going. Like I said, you know when you look at something so horrific like that, it it affects you in a way that’s like completely unexplainable. I’ve never felt something like that before,” she explains.

Shook was shot six times. The fatal bullet pierced his liver. Doctors could not do anything to save him.

” I was still shocked. I was still numb. Like I didn’t believe it. It took me a long time to understand that,” she says.

Like anyone would, she has been mourning the loss and handling the pain. Pain she says, changed her forever, shaping her into the daughter, friend and sister she is today.

”I kind of think about who I was before. I’m not the same person you know? Trauma changes people and I don’t want to say I changed for the worst. I’m a lot more aware,” she says.

Her awareness was that life goes on. In the last year -- Keleigh graduated high school, started college and got her first real job as a CNA, all without her dad there to witness her accomplishments, or to cheer her on.

”That’s like a huge chunk of my life that’s missing. And I’ll never get it back,” she says.

She has spent this last year navigating living her life without him but, she says she’s been living to make him proud.

”I know he’d be proud. He’d be really proud. And I know he’s still as proud. I know he could see what I’m doing. I try to do the best I can because I know he’s still seeing it,” she says. “It helps a lot. You know when things are hard to deal with, with his death and I know that me doing good is making him proud. Even though he’s not here.”

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In December, authorities revealed that Adams suffered from stage two CTE, a brain disease often found in former NFL players.

“In interviews with the Adams family, we learned he endured several concussions, which is known to lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly referred to as CTE,” authorities said that day.

To this day, one year later, a motive remains unknown.

Adams’ father told our partners with The Rock Hill Herald that this has been a “very difficult” year and that they continue to pray for the victims and their families.

WBTV is waiting to hear back from the Lesslie family.

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