The death of a North Carolina professor, who recently announced his retirement amid backlash for comments he made on social media that inc...
The death of a North Carolina professor, who recently announced his retirement amid backlash for comments he made on social media that included calling the state's governor 'Massa Cooper,' has been ruled a suicide.
An investigation showed Mike Adams, a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, killed himself with a single gunshot wound to the head.
New Hanover County Sheriff's Office announced their findings on Monday.
Deputies found his body last Thursday during a welfare check at his home after he was not seen or heard from in several days, Lt. J.J. Brewer said.
Earlier in the morning, a friend called 911 saying that the 55-year-old professor had recently been 'erratic' and 'under a lot of stress' and had not been seen in several days.
Adams, who was a tenured professor at the university, had been forced to take early retirement following two student petitions to have him ousted for posting inflammatory remarks on social media.
Adams recently reached a $504,702 settlement with UNCW for lost salary and lost retirement benefits, and was due to officially cease his association with the university on August 1.
He had recently begun seeing his ex-wife again, according to the New Observer.
Bryan Hanley, a neighbor, said Adams had told him recently that he had befriended his ex-wife, and that she would come by his house every few weeks. It did not appear that the couple had any children.
Another neighbor, John Gillespie, said Adams had planned on selling his home and moving to Charlotte.
The right-wing professor had a history of making misogynistic and racist comments.
He once referred to transgender people as 'mentally ill' and mocked students who accused him of harassing them as 'weak pansies'.
Back in May, Adams sparked outrage among students and faculty once again after he penned several inflammatory tweets.
UNCW denounced his comments as 'vile' and 'inexcusable', and two petitions to have him removed from the college garnered 88,000 signatures.
Police cars are seen outside Adams' Wilmington home on Thursday, called for a wellness check
Medics are seen wheeling a gurney into Adams' home on Thursday after finding his dead body
On May 28, he wrote: 'Don't shut down the universities. Shut down the non essential majors. Like Women's Studies.'
The following day he posted a tweet in which he compared North Carolina's coronavirus restrictions to living 'in a slave state'.
He 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!'
'Massa', which means 'Master', was used in literature and representations of black people during the slave era as the way they referred to their owners.
Adams had tried to defend his post to WECT, saying the analogy he used was to do with the Gov Cooper's oppression during the shutdown, not race.
However, the tweets prompted two online Change.org petitions to have him fired from his job. Combined they received more than 88,000 signatures.
The university subsequently released a statement on June 1, which read: 'We are listening to the outrage being expressed regarding the vile and inexcusable comments made by a UNCW faculty member.
'However, we are not just listening; we can confirm we are very carefully and assertively reviewing our options in terms of how to proceed. We are not able to comment further at this time, as this is a personnel matter'.
Professor Adams is seen speaking at a Conservative Political Action Conference
Later, Chancellor Jose V. Sartarelli, Adams posted a statement on the university's website saying that Adams would retire on August 1.
Adams responded with a Twitter post which read: 'Many young people are depressed because they have been taught to be offended constantly.'
Adams also regularly critiqued his colleagues, as well as the students he taught.
Referring to Black Lives Matter protests, he wrote on Twitter: 'The violent outrage of white liberals taking to the streets is brought to you by your local university.
'None of this would be possible without the encouragement of academic extremists who have hijacked the system of higher education.'
Adams had never been far from controversy - and he appeared to relish in making provocative remarks.
Back in 2016, Adams was the target of another Change.org petition after he suggested a Muslim student was a terrorist and that gay marriage was bad as rape.
That petition, which garnered 5,600 comments, claimed Adams had a history of 'spewing misogynistic, xenophobic, transphobic, homophobic, racist rhetoric'.
The petition said: 'Adams has disrespected the university's promise to provide a safe environment for all individual student[s], and instead has mocked and ridiculed not only individuals, but entire groups. These actions are not acceptable, and no university should make a student feel unsafe.'
In September 2016, Adams wrote an article condemning student Nada Merghani - a self-described 'queer Muslim social justice warrior' - after she wrote on Facebook: 'Expect to see me at the Trump rally... y'all are not prepared for what I'm about to do. All I can say is pray I make it out of this alive.'
Responding to that, Professor Adams said: 'That sounds like a suicide mission for those who have never met Merghani.'
He added: 'In my view, she simply lacks the intellectual coherence to form any sort of rational plan – including, but not limited to, killing a presidential candidate.
'She comes across sort of like Squeaky From me minus the handgun and resolve.'
Merghani told the Daily Beast she felt personally threatened and unsafe on campus after that attack.
She said Adams 'suggested I was a terrorist without a hint of truth or any regard for my personal safety.' She then left the university.
At the time, UNCW said that, whilst they did not agree with Adams' comments, they were 'expressions protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.'
'Dr Adams' conduct and written material do not contain any evidence of a true threat toward this or any other student,' the university claimed.
Two online Change.org petitions to get Adams fired gained 88,000 signatures collectively
Meanwhile, Professor Adams continued to write provocative comments on social media.
Later in 2016, he wrote that 'students who make false claims of harassment to silence others should also be deported'.
He also claimed the argument ''you're racist' usually means 'I have no argument''.
In a separate post following the November 2016 election loss of Hillary Clinton, Adams sniped: 'We could have had a woman president. Unfortunately, radical feminism aborted 28 million 'potential' candidates.'
He also unleashed an attack on the LGBT community in a piece for right-wing publication Daily Wire.
'I wonder whether LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Thespian. So much drama, so few letters in the alphabet.'
Meanwhile, Adams had successfully sued the university for religious and speech-based discrimination when he was not promoted to full professor in 2006.
He was a tenured sociology and criminology professor and had authored a number of books.
Titles included Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts 'Womyn' on Campus.
He also wrote Letters to a Young Progressive: How to Avoid Wasting Your Life Protesting Things You Don't Understand, and A 'Queer Muslim' Jihad.
The Office of University Relations on behalf of the Division of Academic Affairs at UNCW released a statement Thursday night.
'It is with sadness that we share the news that the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office is conducting a death investigation involving Dr. Mike Adams, professor of criminology. Please keep his friends and loved ones in your thoughts.
'Students may call the University Counseling Center (910.962.3746) for grief support; faculty and staff can seek support through the Employee Assistance Program.'
Adams (left) is pictured in a photograph shared to his Facebook account. One of his most controversial tweets referred to North Carolina Gov Roy Cooper (right) as 'Massa Cooper
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