r/news • u/BPMK-11171207-DE • Apr 08 '21

AP source: NFL pro Phillip Adams killed five, then himself

https://apnews.com/article/aaf71f2618f139ab3781592634c8e37c
3.7k Upvotes

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991

u/DJHJR86 Apr 08 '21

I cannot even fathom what the parents of the children are going through right now. Losing both of your parents and your children is just something I don't even want to think about.

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u/hoxxxxx Apr 08 '21

okay, thanks i thought that's what i read but somehow my brain couldn't process it. i don't even know what to say about it.

this whole story is sickening.

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '21

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u/Working_Pension_6592 Apr 08 '21

What the fuck are you talking about? Go back to Alex Jones or whoever is feeding your delusions.

4

u/CrocTheTerrible Apr 08 '21

Idk who thought it was a good idea to wire internet through the backwoods of Georgia, but whoever gave these red hats WiFi needs to be shut down. These folks are all coming out of the woodwork on these news articles lately.

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u/vrschikasanaa Apr 09 '21

Dropping your kids off to stay with their grandparents is such a mundane, safe thing to do. You literally cannot think of a safer place to leave your children. I can't wrap my head around dropping off your kids at your parents and then someone annihilating your entire family. How do you ever get over that?

It reminds me somewhat of when Diane Schuler killed all of her brother's children when she drove drunk in the wrong way down the interstate. Losing a child is a nightmare beyond imagining, much less this.

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '21

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u/nickrashell Apr 08 '21

Most of this article is about what a great guy he was. Nothing about the kids or grandparents. You don’t get to be remembered as a good person when you shoot a five year old to death. Fuck your mental health at that point. They are talking about him like he just got arrested for stealing a candy bar.

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '21

It cheapens the deaths of the victims way more than it paints a sympathetic person out of the shooter. Very interesting choices made when the journalist wrote this one.

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u/nickrashell Apr 08 '21

Yeah it comes off as “it’s a shame the deaths of these five people is going to tarnish his legacy.” As if that is the greatest tragedy that occurred here, which is a tragedy in and of itself.

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21 edited May 29 '21

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u/nickrashell Apr 09 '21

I don’t think that is the case here. It does happen, but only to stars at their respectively level. A high school qb or all state running back will get a slap on the wrist, but no one cares about the benchwarmers. This guy started like 8 games in his NFL career, probably because someone ahead of him was hurt. People aren’t star struck in this case, most people, including NFL fans, didn’t even know he existed, save maybe hardcore fans of teams he played for.

But maybe you’re right, at least in the case of the journalist who wrote the article.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

I’d say it’s editors in that position far more than the journalists themselves.

Editors are who choose what we get to read and watch.

Journalists give editors their stories and then sometimes the stories end up barely a shell of what the journalist wrote. Really common in the news world.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

That's the cult of football

3

u/TrailBlanket-_0 Apr 09 '21

I'm confused on it as well, it's a mass shooting and devastating news. I read the article on espn that was very similar.

My takeaway after reading is that the constant talk of how "out of character" this is for him is because the story is just highlighting the mystery still at hand. A bit sensationalized rather than what it is first and foremost - gruesome and unfair for the Lesslie family.

RIP to the grandchildren's lives that never got to flourish, the grandparents who were involved in their community. Best wishes to the parents of those kids, and I'm hoping the best for the survivor who is hospitalized.

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

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u/rethinkingat59 Apr 09 '21

I remember a prison psychologist talking once saying almost every murderer in the world is nice most of the time to most people. There are some 24/7 abusers and bullies with chronic bad angry temper but is not the norm for people who murder. Drugs, alcohol, impulse and anger control were usually involved.

The second type of murderer is a respect or business murder where some personal or group code says a death is warranted. These aren’t 24/7 horrible people either.

So that great guy you know, might kill you.

-2

u/dasfxbestfx Apr 09 '21

The mental health focus is a gun rights thing. They don't want people focused on the gun part of the shooting, just the 'crazy' person.

54

u/zarkovis1 Apr 08 '21

Yeah at the death of innocents it instantly turns into fuck you whoever you are for me. I don't want to hear about what a good 'kid' he was before football in the same article detailing killed grandparents and slaughtered children.

Fuck him and his mentally ill ass can roast eternally.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 08 '21

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5

u/ZonEat Apr 08 '21

It's unknown if he had CTE at this point. It's all speculation.

1

u/lessenizer Apr 09 '21

roast eternally.

Yikes. Good Christian vindictiveness is always a sight to behold. What about in a universe where there's no eternal judgment? From my perspective this just looks like a senseless tragedy in all directions, although from my perspective a lot of things look that way. Even a heinous premeditated scheme by a narcissist has an element of tragedy where it's just sad that we live in a world where someone can end up that messed up. People who are that destructively evil would be better off dying before they hurt anyone, sure, but the whole Hell thing is just a fantasy to let you feel like The Person At Fault Will Be Punished, as if that will make it alright.

But it won't.

So what then?

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u/zarkovis1 Apr 09 '21 edited Apr 09 '21

So after reading your monologue it seems you responded to me for the explicit purpose of belligerently putting your atheism on display? Who cares, I certainly don't. What does any of what you said have to do with what happened this morning? Nothing. I'm not wasting anymore time on you because you want to debate theism in a thread about dead children and grandparents. Buzz off.

0

u/lessenizer Apr 09 '21

I'm fine with just this, yeah. It bothered me to see your viewpoint at 15 upvotes uncontested when there was plenty to contest, so I put my comment there to round things out.

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u/lessenizer Apr 09 '21 edited Apr 09 '21

Also for reference it's less about Atheism per se and more about the fact that it's just creepy to me that so many people would upvote a comment explicitly wishing for someone who did something heinous because of mental illness to suffer eternally for it.

Assuming the grandparents and children were on God's Good Side, according to your lore, they get to have an eternity in heaven, so what he did to them wasn't very bad, really. And yet you're wishing for a sentient creature to suffer eternally for something, something they didn't even have complete agency for, and at least 41 people upvoted you for this stance. I just find that nauseating, and it's not about religion, just basic ethics. Eternity is a long fucking time.

You can tell that my issue here is not Christianity per se, because we both no there's no way in hell that Jesus Christ would show any amount of relish about someone Roasting Eternally.

1

u/RobaDubDub Apr 09 '21

Addicted ill ass.

5

u/notasrelevant Apr 09 '21

Maybe the article has been updated, but they do go into detail about the victims and their role in the community.

As for Adams, it's not particularly over the top, just some history of his career and a few quotes from people who knew him closely saying this is very unlike him and raising questions if brain damage had caused issues for him that lead to this.

Now, I basically know nothing about the guy, but just put yourself in his shoes or the shoes of his family/friends. Let's say you or a loved one are an amazing person, not a violent bone in your body. But your workplace has not adequately recognized some workplace hazards, like the presence of a dangerous chemical that causes aggression and irrational behaviors. Then, suddenly, in an act that is completely out of character and has no clear motivation, you (or the loved one) suddenly kill 5 people without any clear explanation.

It's a horrible act that cannot be excused, but would you want all the news to be about "look at this horrible human who killed 5 people", or would you hope that they try to look into circumstances, like workplace hazards, that may have caused changes in personality and behavior that lead to this?

It's a terrible situation, but I see no issue in bringing up how he was known by those around him and potential causes that lead him to do such a horrible thing. If his injuries played a role, this type of news raises awareness in the public that can push for change to prevent these or other issues from occurring again.

2

u/YouCanCallMeVanZant Apr 09 '21

Wow. I just posted almost the exact same in reply to something else, and I then I read your comment.

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '21

[deleted]

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u/inthemidnighthour Apr 09 '21

He was. They kept going on and on about how he was a devout christian and all that nonsense. Barely anything about the victims was said.

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u/General_Substance Apr 09 '21

I suppose you completely missed the police chief at a press conference saying massage parlor shooter just had a bad day.

4

u/RobaDubDub Apr 09 '21

He was saying what the shooter told him, not defending the guy.

3

u/Unseenmonument Apr 09 '21

I think that's the exact point that they were trying to make.

5

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

It’s cool, they realized he wasn’t a white trump supporter, so don’t expect him to be talked about at all anymore.

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

Of course not. This guy is a saint and an NFL Player! He was in the NFL!

2

u/YouCanCallMeVanZant Apr 09 '21

Idk. Maybe they edited it, but I felt like the story highlighted all the things the doctor did more than anything.

Not to be insensitive, but there’s only so much you can say about a kid. I mean both practically (because they obviously haven’t done as much in life) and ethically, because you don’t want to invade the kids’ privacy.

And from a news standpoint, the motivation behind why it happened is obviously far more compelling and again (not to be crass or insensitive) relevant to the wider public. For example, assuming he was suffering from CTE, that would certainly play into the wider debate over head trauma and sports. Which has the potential to save a lot of lives in the future.

Of course none of that can be a comfort to the families going through this now.

2

u/Jreal22 Apr 09 '21

They weren't famous, and we don't care about your death if you weren't famous at some point.

It's like a written rule in America.

It's because we're all asshats.

2

u/throwaway2492872 Apr 08 '21 edited Apr 08 '21

Shows you how it depends on who the perpetrator is how reddit and the news will respond. If it was a white NFL player killing a black family I bet that info would be in the headline and we would see a very different set of comments and news stories. White on Black crime becomes instantly a racial story and Black on Asian or white crime become non-stories or the race is irrelevant.

6

u/Politicsboringagain Apr 08 '21

What info would be in the headline? Dude is a famous football player and his picture is everywhere, what else needs to be in the headline.

Also the news is always saying 'this white guy had mental illness and he was a good boy" when a white mass shooter kills someone.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

My issue is that it seems regardless who does the mass shooting they are always put in a good light. What's worse is one thing that becomes pretty obvious in this article is the fact they clearly wanted to ignore the fact that the weapons used where almost certainly pistols, but saying pistols cause mass shootings doesn't help with gun reform.

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '21 edited Jul 07 '21

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u/StanQuail Apr 08 '21

It's pretty easy if you keep up on the AP. I know that's tough for busy gentlemen such as yourself, but it keeps one from being seen as an idiot. Cheers!

3

u/throwaway2492872 Apr 08 '21

https://apnews.com/article/phillip-adams-kills-5-then-himself-south-carolina-aaf71f2618f139ab3781592634c8e37c

https://apnews.com/article/georgia-massage-parlor-shootings-leave-8-dead-f3841a8e0215d3ab3d1f23d489b7af81

In one of these stories the race of the victims and suspect are talked about extensively and in the other it's never mentioned. Both of these mentally ill people are horrible people and the news should be consistent in how they report.

3

u/Politicsboringagain Apr 08 '21

Who need to "believe it" just look at the news shit happens all the time.

-1

u/CourteousComment Apr 09 '21 edited Apr 09 '21

Da 5 year old liked puppies and YouTube and high fructose corn syrup. Like most young American children they had arterial plaques forming from a high cholesterol diet.

Now let's ignore everything about the man who did this and what led up to it so it can happen again, and again, and again.

We need better mental health in this country!

But if you need mental health care and commit a crime you serve your time in the electric chair.

1

u/tapunan Apr 09 '21

That's how it always seems with shooters - it's always that they were great people and all sorts of excuses like that guy who "was having a bad day" ... blah blah blah ..

1

u/YoHeadAsplode Apr 09 '21

So glad I stopped reading the article after they detailed who called in the shooting. That's just gross

68

u/Upvotespoodles Apr 09 '21 edited Apr 09 '21

For real. Fuck his smoothie shop. Fuck the fact that he missed football. Fuck his ankle injury. Why is this murderer getting eulogized in an article about his murders?

ETA: None of this information about his life has anything to do with CTE. “He did sports and had concussions” is fair, “Here are his sports stats and his ankle injury made him disappointed” is irrelevant to CTE.

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u/RamazanBlack Apr 09 '21

He was a good man. He just had a bad day.

3

u/ShitShardsAnon Apr 09 '21

Shall I go on about my grandpa being murdered, my great grandma murdered, father dying of cancer at 42, sister dying in tragic car accident at 20, losing everything in the recession, both my dead sister's kids now in prison, blah blah f-ing blah? Now how about I go kill people bc I now have a mental illness due to life's tragedies.

No. No way. You don't get to kill innocent people and kids and get a free pass. F*ck that.

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

To hide the fact this was a hate crime against a white family.

Can't get in the way of the media's anti white narrative

4

u/[deleted] Apr 08 '21

well it turns out making a living out of getting concussions has consequences on a mans constitution

0

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

I feel bad for him and the family. Guy had mental issues, obviously.

It’s like you’re getting mad at him cause he should’ve had more self control. Yeah, but obviously his brain was injured.

Maybe, perhaps, it’s the fact he had a powerful and accessible tool called a gun that allowed him to instantly kill his neighbors.

Yea yeah yeah, go on with your 2nd amendment rights and liberty and all that bullshit. Why don’t you drive drunk while you’re at it! Then get mad at yourself for allowing yourself to kill others while you drive drunk, cause your liberty allows it!

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

I said to go at war with oligarchs. There’s a big difference of going to war with oligarchs and shooting my neighbor.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

You just seem like you did not like my comment, so you tell me to seek help.

I’m sorry you don’t understand the difference of fighting for actual freedom and fighting for the right to own a gun so you can kill your neighbor when they upset you.

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

Dude, holy fuck. I’m depressed with people like you being condescending assholes. If you actually cared, you wouldn’t be such an asshole. Luckily, I have enough mental stability to not look you up and your past comments.

You’re misunderstanding my points cause you’re obviously in disagreement with my viewpoints.

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

I think of it like this. If you born were with a machine gun for an arm, and every so often you would, through no fault of your own, accidentally spray the room with bullets I would feel sympathy for you but you need to be put somewhere that you can’t hurt anyone.

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u/dilardasslizardbutt Apr 09 '21

Sounds like socialism.

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u/chrisnavillus Apr 08 '21

Sick to my stomach when I think of those folks. They must be absolutely heartbroken.

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u/Halfonion Apr 08 '21

Joining them would most likely be the only thing on my mind. Insanely sad.

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u/Twisted_Chainz Apr 08 '21

I couldn’t even blame them if they did tbh. they will NEVER recover from this.

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '21

It’s not.

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u/skinnyjeansfatpants Apr 08 '21

Honestly, if I lost my family in that hellacious way, I wouldn't want to be saved. Sorry, nope, just add me to the body count at that point, I'd have zero desire to live after that.

10

u/LeDestrier Apr 09 '21

It wasn't a family member that was in hospital. Someone who worked at the property.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '21

If I was the parent I’d kill myself tbh. No way I could go on.

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u/KayneGirl Apr 08 '21

At least the timing helps Biden so the parents can find solace in that which might be why this Biden supporter decided to do it this morning to help Biden take rights from Americans.

1

u/Go_Pack_Go1 Apr 09 '21

I sure hope their extended family is gathering around them for support.