Barnett Adams, a 33 year old Black, was shot on the evening of December 19, 2013, outside a convenience store at Chicago Avenue and Central Avenue in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago's West Side.
Inside the store, witnesses saw a heated argument between Adams and another man that spilled onto the sidewalk.
The two traded punches; when Adams knocked the other man to the ground, the man pulled a handgun and fired multiple times, striking Adams before fleeing.
As people rushed him back into the store and tried to save him, first responders arrived and transported him to Mount Sinai Hospital.
He was pronounced dead about an hour later. Authorities noted the gunfire struck his neck and shoulder, and that the shooting happened around 5:00–5:10 p.m. on the 5600 block of West Chicago Avenue.
Detectives canvassed the area and, using a narcotics “buy-bust” operation in the Chicago and Central corridor, developed a lead.
Days later, the Chicago Police Department's Fugitive Apprehension Unit arrested James Wilson, 30, of Forest Park, in Urbana. Wilson was charged with first-degree murder and ordered held without bond.
At trial, the store manager and other eyewitnesses recounted that Wilson confronted Adams, was felled by a single punch, then opened fire before leaving the scene, one witness said he left in a light-colored Infiniti, and later identified Wilson in an in-person lineup.
A jury found Wilson guilty of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 50 years in prison; the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the judgment, and a later appellate order again referenced the 50 year sentence as Wilson pursued post-conviction relief. No additional suspects were charged in the killing.
Adams's death remains listed among Chicago homicide records and remembrance sites that document the toll of gun violence across the city.
