NewsRegionHarford County

Actions

19 guns seized from home in Harford County

Owner fired weapon during domestic dispute
Posted at 5:16 PM, Jan 16, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-16 18:07:34-05

STREET, Md. — He has every right to fly a Confederate flag on his property, but more than 150 years after the final shot sounded from the Civil War, a single shot has landed 66-year-old James Dwight Adams, Junior behind bars in Harford County.

It started when deputies responded to a domestic call with a shot fired on Forge Hill Road in Street.

"Upon their arrival, they came across our suspect and his wife who were intoxicated and they admitted to being in a verbal domestic argument and the suspect and his wife admitted that he fired a shot, and he admitted he actually fired the shot across the street into the woods," said Col. William Davis of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.

Adams never threatened his wife with the gun or pointed it at her, but firing across a road brought a reckless endangerment charge, and then investigators learned a prior handgun violation in 2001 meant he could no longer possess a firearm in the state.

"Our deputies stayed at the house, did a search warrant for the house and recovered 19 firearms outside of the house,” said Davis. “I think it was four handguns and another 15 rifles inside the house---some were in a safe, some were under a couch, one was under a couch and I think one was in the headboard of a bed in the bedroom."

Police say they're not sure if Adams knew that he could not legally possess a gun, but ignorance of the law won't excuse him from 33 additional charges he now faces in this case, and an investigation continues into whether he purchased the weapons legally before he lost his right.

"The guns aren't illegal,” said Davis. “The fact that he was arrested and prohibited from owning the guns is what is illegal. He's the criminal, and the guns were in his possession."

Adams is being held at the Harford County Detention Center with no bond.