Biography
Timothy Adams, born March 22, 1948 in Bennettsville, South Carolina, was alleged to be a member of the Black Liberation Army. Police arrested him with Henry “Sha Sha” Brown during an October 3, 1973 raid in Bushwick, Brooklyn, while Adams was already under indictment in a 1971 attempted-murder case. A later prosecution followed a December 15, 1974 shootout with police. A contemporary Black World report states that Adams was held on Rikers Island in lieu of $50,000 bail in spring 1975 on three attempted-murder counts and a weapon charge. This confirms extended pretrial confinement, although the release date and final case disposition have not been located.
Blackworld (April-May 1975, p. 3) reported that the December 15, 1974 police shooting left Adams paralyzed from the waist down after twelve wounds, most in his back. He was held in the Rikers Island medical ward and represented by attorney Martin Stolar. The paper reported that his bail was raised from $5,000 to $50,000 on March 12, 1975, while preliminary hearings were underway.
The May 30, 1975 statement in the July newsletter individually names this prisoner in its contemporary political-prisoner account. The statement documents historical imprisonment rather than a new arrest or a current custody claim. It supplies no new individual discharge or complete sentence duration. Black Community News Letter, volume13, July1975, Awakening of a Dragon, original PDF page 22. Source: https://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC32_scans/32.BlackComNewsletter.AwakeningofaDragon.pdf#page=22
The Haskins tribute names Timothy Adams among those convicted by November 1974 over a failed attempt to free BLA prisoners at the Tombs. Existing records describe separate attempted-murder and harboring prosecutions; this brief retrospective does not resolve their relationship, exact conviction counts or custody endpoints, so those cases are not rewritten from it.
The Dragons Fire, March 15–April 15, 2024, vol. 72, PDF page 11.
