From her Hugo living room, Kim Adams shared the grief she prays no other parent ever feels.
“I miss him a lot,” said Adams, whose son was murdered in a Fridley parking lot by a man he never met.
She is sharing her story after thinking for so long that something so tragic couldn’t happen to a family like hers.
“My kids were born in Phoenix, and we moved up here to have a safer place to live. He lived in the country, he rode ATVs, my daughter had a horse—were just regular people. If this could happen to him, it could happen to anybody,” she said.
Devon Adams was 27 years old and the owner of a tree-trimming business. He was also on the autism spectrum.
Devon’s mom described him as a mitigator who “always wanted to keep the peace.”
According to court documents, on March 9, 2023, Devon Adams saw Johnson Kenny Sirleaf beating his girlfriend in a Cub Foods parking lot when he intervened.
“He was in his truck, eating a sandwich. It was 11 o’clock in the morning. He overheard a woman screaming for help. He got out of his vehicle, walked directly over there, had some type of verbal altercation with Sirleaf and as Devon was walking away, he shot him,” his mom said.
“I started looking him up and looking at his previous encounters with the law. He has a juvenile record. This has been going on for a long, long time. He should have been in prison.”
Crime Watch Minneapolis detailed Sirleaf’s trouble with the law as his crimes escalated from counterfeit checks and stolen property to robbery, theft and domestic assault.
Sirleaf also shared an apartment with Augustus Sirleaf who months earlier murdered “a teen over a shoe robbery in Plymouth,” Crime Watch reported.
“He was let out on zero bail four months prior to killing my son,” Adams said.
“We are teaching these criminals that they can get away with this. They know the line and we are co-signing this saying you can. People are moving here in droves for our great welfare system. They know the revolving door. They watch this stuff. They are smart. It’s just unbelievable. It’s unbelievable,” she added.
Kim Adams has done her best to sound the alarm over ongoing lawlessness, as Minnesota’s murder rate has climbed 50% since 2019.
She even made a plea to Gov. Tim Walz more than a year ago that went unanswered.
“I believe my message was not even forwarded to him,” she said.
Alpha News reached out to Walz’s office for comment on the murder of Devon Adams but did not hear back.
Earlier this summer, Sirleaf was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
On the stand, the woman who was being abused called Kim’s son her guardian angel.
“That was helpful to me to hear that,” she said. “Who has to die in order for someone to pay attention?”
Liz Collin
Liz Collin has been a truth-teller for 20 years as a multi-Emmy-Award-winning reporter and anchor. Liz is a Worthington, Minnesota native who lives in the suburbs with her husband, son and loyal lab.
