Corey Adams was only a freshman for Ole Miss football, but had aspirations to one day play in the NFL, his mother said at an emotional news conference on July 21 in Memphis.
Adams, a defensive end who was an early enrollee, was shot and killed on July 19 in Cordova, Tennessee, a suburb east of Memphis. An update from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation is ongoing but no arrests have been made. Investigators and Chantrel Bernhart, Adams’ mother, are asking witnesses to come forward with any information.
“He wasn’t doing anything besides pursuing his dream of becoming an NFL player,” Bernhart said of Adams, an 18-year-old from New Orleans. “He was doing a phenomenal job, and they took it from him.”
Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Anthony Buckner said the shooting occurred at 10:14 p.m. CT on July 19 at a pool party with about 100 attendees. More than 40 shell casings from a rifle and pistol were found at the scene at a residence on Fern Glade Cove. Adams was pronounced dead at a nearby intersection of Forest Hill-Irene and Walnut Grove roads.
Four other adult men arrived at hospitals in personal vehicles in non-critical condition. Three of them have been released as of July 21. Their identities have not been revealed.
“He was not a bad child,” Bernhart said. “My child simply got to this party. Within 10 minutes, he was killed. He wasn’t even in the party.”
Bernhart recalled a text message from Adams on July 16 wishing her a happy birthday.
“ ‘Mom, I love you so much,’ ” Bernhart said of the text. “ ‘Happy birthday. Sometimes people don’t have their mother or have such a good mother like you, and I appreciate you for being who you are and I love you so much. You’re so wonderful.’
“That’s the type of things that my son would tell me every day.”
Adams’ younger brother — Bernhart asked that his name not be released, a request the sheriff’s office said it would honor — said at the news conference that he spoke to Corey the day before he was killed.
“I was on the phone with him talking about practice, how it was going and he told me he loved me,” the brother said. “He told me, ‘I love you, kid,’ for the last time the day before. Now he’s gone. I’ll never be able to hear those words again.”
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
