In the early hours of May 28, 2019, Kiah Dykes, a 42-year-old Black/African American male, was found suffering from a serious gunshot wound at an apartment complex in Oklahoma City, near Southeast 44th Street and Sooner Road. Though coherent enough to tell first responders that a man named 'Adam' had shot him, Dykes would later succumb to his injuries after being transported to a nearby hospital.
His death was the tragic culmination of a dispute that had taken place earlier that day.
The investigation into the shooting revealed that Dykes had been involved in a verbal altercation with 30-year-old Adam Bernard Jones in the parking lot of the apartment complex. This initial conflict reportedly escalated significantly later on. Surveillance footage captured a dark-colored SUV pulling up behind Dykes' vehicle, from which the suspect emerged and fired a single shot before fleeing the scene on foot. This visual evidence, combined with witness accounts and Dykes's own dying declaration to his girlfriend and the police, quickly pointed investigators toward Jones.
Adam Bernard Jones, a man with a criminal history that included convictions for burglary, kidnapping, and drug possession, was swiftly identified as the primary suspect and apprehended. Upon his arrest, police discovered text messages on his phone in which he had written, 'I had to shoot him, he disrespected me twice.' Jones was subsequently charged with first-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm, and was held at the Oklahoma County Jail without bond. The swift arrest brought a suspect to justice in a case that tragically highlighted how a verbal disagreement could escalate into fatal violence.
