Gary Adams Jr., a 19-year-old Black/African American male, was fatally shot on the evening of May 13, 2015, in the Walker Woods development in Dover, Delaware. Police records described Adams as a Smyrna resident who was enrolled at Smyrna High School. At approximately 8:54 p.m., Dover police received a report of a gunshot and a man lying on the ground near the rear of the development on Harmony Lane.
Officers arrived and found Adams suffering from a single gunshot wound to the upper left side of his chest. They immediately began first-aid efforts before he was taken to Kent General Hospital, where he died from his injuries. An autopsy later determined that the gunshot wound caused his death and classified the case as a homicide.
Investigators eventually determined that the shooting began with what was supposed to be a marijuana transaction. According to court records, Adams and a friend had arranged through text messages to meet two people who were supposedly interested in buying marijuana. Because Adams' phone battery had died, he used his friend's phone to communicate with the prospective buyers. When Adams and his friend arrived on Harmony Lane, they were directed to a place to park, where two men approached their vehicle. The men were later identified as Damier Harmon and Bruce Manlove.
A witness told detectives that Adams handed a bag of marijuana to Manlove, who placed it in his pocket. The encounter then changed abruptly when Harmon allegedly produced a handgun and ordered Adams to surrender his property. Adams got out of the vehicle and a physical struggle followed. The witness heard one gunshot and saw Adams collapse. Harmon and Manlove then fled from the area. Investigators recovered a single 9mm cartridge casing from the scene. Another neighborhood witness also reported seeing the struggle, hearing the gunshot and watching the two men run away afterward.
The investigation quickly focused on Harmon and Manlove. Police learned that Harmon was on electronic monitoring at the time and that monitoring information placed him in the vicinity of the shooting. Court records state that shortly after Adams was killed, Harmon cut off his ankle monitor and fled the area. Manlove and Harmon were subsequently located at a hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia police arrested both men, and they were held while authorities arranged their extradition to Delaware. Manlove later admitted his involvement in the crime and identified Harmon as the person who fired the fatal shot.
Harmon was initially charged with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, possession of ammunition by a prohibited person and second-degree conspiracy. Manlove faced first-degree robbery, possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony and second-degree conspiracy. Their arrests came less than a week after Adams was killed.
The criminal cases ultimately ended with guilty pleas rather than murder trials. On November 29, 2016, Harmon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The murder charge was a lesser offense than the first-degree murder count he originally faced, which could have resulted in mandatory life imprisonment if he had been convicted. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed the remaining counts and recommended that his incarceration not exceed 30 years. Harmon later acknowledged his involvement during sentencing and asked Adams' family for forgiveness. He received a 50-year sentence that was suspended after 30 years of imprisonment, with 18 years designated as mandatory time.
Manlove also pleaded guilty, admitting to first-degree robbery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He had agreed to testify against Harmon if Harmon's case proceeded to trial. In January 2017, Manlove was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Harmon was sentenced the following month for Adams' killing. Delaware prosecutors described the crime as an attempted robbery during the marijuana transaction, with the confrontation escalating into a struggle before Harmon fired the shot that killed Adams.
Adams' death deeply affected Smyrna High School, where administrators arranged for crisis counselors to be available to students after learning that one of their own had been killed. What was initially reported as a mysterious shooting behind a Dover residential development was resolved through witness accounts, electronic monitoring evidence, arrests in Philadelphia and eventually guilty pleas from both men involved in the attempted robbery that ended Adams' life.
