John P. Adams Jr. was 23 when he was shot and killed during a violent roadside confrontation that crossed the Missouri River from Omaha into Council Bluffs on July 11, 1982. The dispute began after a traffic incident in Omaha involving Adams and two men on motorcycles and continued near North 25th Street and West Broadway. Witnesses say Adams approached one of the riders, who then produced a firearm and shot him in the face or head. Adams collapsed in the 2400 block of West Broadway and was found deceased by responding officers.

The shooter escaped north on North 25th Street on a candy-apple-red Kawasaki KZ900. Witnesses described the suspected gunman as about 18 to 20 years old, tall, clean-shaven, with dishwater-blond hair, wearing a white golf-style shirt and blue jeans; the second motorcyclist’s appearance is not reliably reported. Many people were present, but conflicting or negative witness accounts hampered the investigation. No records indicate either motorcyclist was identified, arrested, or charged, and the Council Bluffs Police Department lists the case G82-1088 as an unsolved homicide.