Officer Terry Adams remembered ten years later

Published 12:00 pm Monday, April 22, 2019

TIFTON — Terry Adams is part of a small brotherhood: law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

Adams, a traffic officer with the Tifton Police Department for seven years, was killed in the line of duty on April 22, 2009. He was responding to another officer’s call for assistance on his police motorcycle when he was involved in an accident near the Dairy Queen on Tift Avenue. He was 38 years old at the time of his death.

“This year will be 10 years that life has gone on without him,” said Melissa Walker, who was Terry’s wife at the time of his death.

Walker said that she met Adams when she was working at Video Warehouse as a nursing student.

“He was a police officer and he would often come in and do safety checks on the business,” she said. “Sometimes he would rent movies.”

She said that she was impressed with his character after he helped her get home after a night with friends and then called to check up on her the next day.

Walker said that he kept his work and home lives separate, but that she did go on one ride along with him.

“The first and last time, we got in an accident,” she said, laughing. “We went to a call, it was in interstate accident. He jumped on the interstate the wrong way. It about gave me a heart attack! Apparently a semi ran a car into the median and they hit the side and they had the semi pulled over. We were sitting there because he was the first one on the scene with GSP (Georgia State Patrol) pulled behind us. I guess some girl was on her phone and not paying attention and didn’t see that traffic had moved over. She slammed into the back of the GSP car, which ended up hitting our car. GSP jumped on the wall, luckily he didn’t get hurt.”

She said that Adams told her, “No more ride alongs for you.”

They dated for about two years and were married on Oct. 2, 2008.

“We planned to have a service for our family in May of 2009,” she said.

They never got the chance.

Walker said she won’t ever forget the call.

She said that she called him when she got out of class and asked if he wanted to eat lunch with her at their home.

“I learned later that he was at Burger King, just kind of cutting up with a few other cops,” she said. “A call had come in while they were eating. He was going to meet me and he wasn’t eating because he was going to meet me.”

She said that when a call for assistance came over the radio to the officers who were eating lunch, Adams took it so they could finish their meal.

“I was chilling at the house,” she said. “I had my feet propped up, eating Triscuits and drinking a bottle of water. It’s crazy how much you can remember when something like that happens.”

She said that when his number popped up on her phone, she answered it by teasing him about running late.

“It wasn’t him,” she said. “It was somebody else.”

She was told that he was in an accident, but she didn’t think it was a serious one at first. They said they were sending a car to get her but she didn’t want to wait, so she drove herself to the emergency room.

“They took us to this holding room,” she said. “We were right in the middle of praying when the doctor came in and interrupted our prayer and told us that he had passed away.”

She said that she doesn’t remember much after that.

“When you hear that, you just shriek, “ she said. “Your heart goes in a million pieces, and they were just like, ‘You’ve got to quiet it down, you can’t be that loud.’ I was like, do you know what just happened?”

She said that she was just numb after the initial shock.

“I can look back and remember bits and pieces now, but it was like a trance,” she said. She said she still has to fight survivors guilt even now.

“I pulled out a movie the other night to watch with my child, and it was one of his,” she said. “I asked myself, am I really crying over a movie? But it was his, and he can’t watch it.”

She said that she wants to make sure Adams is remembered for not only his life of service, but for who he was.

Three daughters, Chelsey, Alex and Terrace were young when their father passed, and Walker said she feels blessed that she is able to be in their lives to help keep his memory alive with them.

“He was the kind of person who would go above and beyond,” she said. “He was funny too, so goofy. He’d make everybody laugh.”

His daughter Chelsey said that he was a goofball.

“He could make any situation better just with his incredible wit and light up a room with his personality,” she said. She described him as a creative, caring person with a great Scooby-Doo impression, and credits her decision to become an ER nurse to him.

Alex said that her father was her hero.

“He was one of the most amazing men I have ever known in my life,” she said. “Nothing will ever change the hurt and loss that I have been through, but every day I’ve lived without him I’ve gained beautiful, amazing blessings. I feel like he has always been there for me and my family. He is with me every day. I carry all of his love in my heart. I talked to my kids about him. I cry over him. I laugh about him.”

Adams’ youngest daughter, Terrace, said that she was eight when her father died and that what she remembers about her time with him was “pure joy.”

“My father was more than just a cop for me and my sisters,” she said. “He was a man who loved us deeply and cherished us.”

She said that she wishes he could be with her and her sisters, but that she knows he’s watching over them and that he’s proud of them.

Adams’ best friend, Tucker Wilcox, said that he still misses his friend.

“There have been many times, even today, 10 years later, when I think, ‘Man, I got to tell Terry about this,’” he said. “Then comes the realization that I can’t. That’s the kind of impact that Terry had on a lot of people’s lives. It was truly a lasting one.”