Friends pounded on NC professor Mike Adams’ door, shouted his name before body was found

Updated July 27, 2020: For more reaction to Mike Adams’ death and the latest on the investigation, read more here.

Friends frantically pounded on Mike Adams’ door calling “Mike! Mike!” on Thursday afternoon in the minutes before deputies arrived and found the UNC-Wilmington professor dead inside, his neighbors said Friday.

“Next thing I know, I had 20-something vehicles all throughout here,” said Bryan Hanley, 56.

He said New Hanover County deputies then put up crime scene tape and brought Adams’ body out of the house.

The Star News in Wilmington reported that a friend of Adams called 911 at about 12:30 p.m. Thursday and said he was worried about Adams, who he had not heard from.

“He has been erratic the last few weeks,” the caller said, according to the Star News. “Not erratic dangerous, just been under a lot of stress.”

News of Adams’ death erupted on social media Thursday and Friday, with some people decrying his tweets about race and gender and another saluting him as a fearless conservative voice.

Around Adams’ home near Bayshore, neighbors had few clues to explain the sudden death of a 55-year-old professor who was set to retire in a week with more than $500,000 in settlement money from the university he had battled for two decades.

Hanley said Adams had told him recently that he had befriended his ex-wife, and that she would come by his house every few weeks. Another neighbor, John Gillespie, said Adams had planned on selling his home and moving to Charlotte.

“We’ve heard a lot of rumors, you know ... all these people jumping to these conclusions,” Hanley said.

The death investigation continued Friday, but Lt. J.J. Brewer of the sheriff’s department did not release the cause of death or other details.

Settlement with university

Adams, a tenured criminology professor, was set to retire Aug. 1, after reaching a settlement agreement with the university for more than $500,000.

He has long drawn fire at UNCW, most recently surrounding his comments on social media, The News & Observer has reported.

UNC-Wilmington Chancellor Jose Sartarelli said earlier this month that the best way to resolve the issue “quickly, with certainty, and in the most fiscally responsible way” was to negotiate a settlement.

In a May 28 tweet, Adams said universities shouldn’t be closing because of COVID-19 but that they should shut down “the non-essential majors. Like Women’s Studies.”

The next day, Adams tweeted, “This evening I ate pizza and drank beer with six guys at a six-seat table top. I almost felt like a free man who was not living in the slave state of North Carolina. Massa Cooper, let my people go!”

Adams also tweeted about the individuals protesting the killing of George Floyd, saying that rioters were “thugs looking for an opportunity to break the law with impunity.”

A large rock on the UNCW campus was spray-painted and plastered with demands that Adams be fired, though it had been covered over before Friday.

Alumnus Sheryl Yoast tweeted last month that she would never send her children there while he continued to teach. More than 100,000 people signed Change.org petitions against Adams.

Previous controversies

But Adams’ controversies go much further back.

In 2001, he took offense at a student’s email to faculty and fellow students that called the 9/11 attacks a tragedy but accused the American government of imperialist warfare in the Middle East, The Star-News of Wilmington wrote at the time.

Adams wrote back, “Your claimed interest in promoting rational discussion is dishonest. It is an intentionally divisive diatribe. ... I hope that your bad speech serves as a catalyst for better speech by others,” the newspaper reported in 2001.

Adams’ message drew accusations of harassment, and the student who wrote the original email said she received many other messages she considered threatening. She requested and received a log of Adams’ email.

University police investigated but took no action. Still, the dust-up over the email made national news and drew involvement from the civil liberties group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, supporting Adams.

One of the messages investigated by campus police came from then-student Krysten Scott, according to The Seahawk campus newspaper. She told the newspaper that she may have lost her temper but said nothing threatening.

Scott and Adams later became engaged and married, The Star-News reported. Her name appears on the deed to Adams’ house, though a Facebook profile shows that she has since remarried.

She and others in the family could not be reached by The News & Observer on Friday.

Tributes from conservatives

Tributes from conservatives and free speech advocates filled online sites Thursday.

“He loved his students, and his students loved him back,” David French, editor of The Dispatch conservative newsletter, said in a tweet. “He won teaching awards. He won service awards. His case helped preserve academic freedom. ... At the same time, there was pain he did not show. He suffered loss he did not discuss.”

Grace Morgan, a former student who now works for Taxpayers Protection Alliance, tweeted, “He was unbelievably smart, funny, encouraging, and kind. He taught with such a passion for criminology and a deep understanding of the constitution.”

Neighbors saw a regular man who jogged daily and exercised in the yard, and they wondered at his other life online.

“I was interested in talking to him once I found out exactly what he was all about,” Hanley said. “I was like, ‘How do you handle that much pressure on you? You know nationwide people turned against you. How do you handle something like that? How do you handle that kind of stress? Obviously, I wish none of this happened, it shouldn’t happen to anybody no matter how controversial you are.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 2:54 PM.