2 await & shoot Olney bar owner, video shows

Bar owner John Adams is the kind of guy who would walk female employees and patrons to their cars to make sure they're safe.

But on Sunday night, he could have used a guardian angel himself.

Dramatic surveillance video released by police yesterday shows a coldhearted thug raise his gun just before shooting Adams, who had walked a patron to her car.

The Olney bar owner, who was identified by friends, is now fighting for his life and police are searching for the gunman and an accomplice. He was in critical condition at a city hospital yesterday.

The video captured the gunman and his accomplice on the sidewalk of 5th Street just north of Ruscomb, as they were standing a couple doors down from the bar, Johnny's Top Cat Club, just before the shooting, which happened about 10:50 p.m.

The two assailants are described as Hispanic men in their 20s. The gunman, about 5-foot-8, was wearing a light-blue shirt and a Phillies baseball cap, and had tattoos on his neck - writing on one side, and pictures of money bags on the other. The cap has been recovered by police.

The thugs were in the bar before the shooting, a close friend of Adams said yesterday.

The friend, who did not want her name printed, said Adams was in the front of the bar collecting cash for a comedy show that was being held Sunday night in a back room.

She said the assailants made their way to the back of the bar and when they were asked if they had tickets, which cost $20, "they refused to pay and said, 'f- that,' and proceeded on leaving."

Moments later, the woman said, someone ran to the back section of the bar and yelled that someone was shooting outside.

"I was frantic, petrified, scared as anyone would be," she said. As people ran outside, a crowd gathered around Adams, who was lying on the ground outside a Chinese takeout two doors down from the bar, she said.

The two assailants are seen in the surveillance video walking with two women, then standing on the sidewalk and talking with them for a few minutes before the shooting.

Lt. George McClay, of Northwest Detectives, said the women were interviewed, but "they're saying they don't know who" the two men are.

After one woman left, then the other, the two attackers were seen in the video waiting and looking around, and then one pulled out a gun and pointed it at Adams as he was walking by.

The gunman shot the bar owner, and after he fell to the ground pleading for his life, the gunman shot him again, Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman, said yesterday at a news conference.

Before fleeing, the gunman is seen taking something from the bar owner's pants pocket, police said.

Adams had come out of the bar that night to walk a former female employee, who was at the bar to see the comedy show, to her car, Adams' friend said. He was walking back to the bar when he was shot.

"John is the gentleman. He is and always has been," the friend said. "Every woman that's been there [at the bar], he says, 'Where you park, Boo Boo?' " the friend said. "He would walk them to their car and he would say, 'Call me when you get home.' "

The friend said she believes the gunman took the cash from the comedy-show sales from Adams' pocket.

The friend, who visited Adams at the hospital yesterday, said he was shot first in the abdomen. Police said the second bullet went through the bar owner's right arm as he lifted it to shield himself; that bullet flew into his chest.

Adams was in a medically induced coma at the hospital yesterday, the friend said.

Adams is a "hardworking man" who struggles to take care of his 3-year-old daughter, the friend said. She said Adams has owned the bar for about nine years, and has been holding the comedy shows for the past seven. Comedians who have performed at the bar include TuRae and Michael Blackson.

Sunny Singh, who works in the Discount Check Cashing store next to the bar, said that community members would hold a meeting to discuss the shooting at 5 p.m. today at the Greater Philadelphia Asian Social Services Center, or the GPASS community center, as it is better known, on 5th Street near Ruscomb.

"The neighborhood people are scared," said Singh, who packed a gun in his waistband before he walked from behind the protective-glass counter to talk with a reporter.

The surveillance video with the two assailants can be seen at www.phillypolice.com/news. Anyone with information on them should contact Northwest Detectives at 215-686-3353.