A shooting at a Rock Hill home Wednesday evening has left five dead. The victims included former Winthrop Supervising Physician and Medical Director Dr. Robert Lesslie, age 70, along with his wife, Barbara, age 69, and two of their grandchildren, ages 5 and 9, according to a press release from the York County Coroner’s Office. There was a fifth person killed in the shooting, James Lewis, age 38, also according to the press release.
Authorities were contacted around 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday, April 7. Lesslie, his wife and grandchildren were deceased upon authorities’ arrival and Lewis was hospitalized with serious gunshot wounds and later passed away, according to CNN.
Before the York County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspect, locals were told “to remain in their homes and lock your doors during the search for the suspect,” according to the York County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.
Authorities then found the suspect in a nearby home. The suspect was identified as former NFL player Phillip Adams, age 33. The suspect killed himself early Thursday morning, according to The Charlotte Observer.
According to WSOCTV.com, “Dr. Robert Lesslie was well-known in Rock Hill as a doctor, author, loving father and grandfather, and an active member of his church.”
Lesslie and his wife had four children and eight grandchildren, according to his online biography.
“For more than 25 years, I worked in and directed several of the busiest ERs in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. I have also served as medical director of the emergency department for almost fifteen years at Piedmont Medical Center. There, I taught and certified the hospital staff in basic and advanced life support,” Lesslie wrote in his online biography.
Lesslie was also the supervising physician and medical director at Winthrop University for over 25 years, according to an email sent by Interim President George Hynd on Thursday morning.
“The Winthrop community is shocked and deeply saddened by the mass shooting yesterday involving four family members and two workers outside of Rock Hill. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims. I am writing because Winthrop has a connection to this tragedy of which many of you are likely unaware,” Hynd wrote. “His contributions to our community were wide ranging, and students, in particular, have long benefitted from referrals to his practice when additional care was needed beyond our scope. I personally will be forever grateful to him for the advice and counsel he provided to our COVID-19 response team as we opened the campus last fall to residential living and learning. We simply would not have been able to successfully open and provide on-site quarantine and isolation support if it were not for Dr. Lesslie.”
Photo via robertlesslie.com
