Adakai surrenders to Gallup Police

By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

GALLUP — Attempted murder suspect Jeffery L. Adakai surrendered to Gallup Police on Tuesday and was booked into the McKinley County Detention Center 19, at 9:19 p.m.
Adakai was wanted in connection with the attempted homicide at the Indian Hills basketball courts on Friday, June 27.

Adakai was charged for attempted murder of victim Cooper Curley “and various other charges,” Detective John Yearley of the Gallup Police Department said. Robbery is one of the other charges, Yearley said in an interview when Adakai was identified as the suspect. Yearley said he was being charged with robbery because before he shot the victim he said “Cooper, where’s my money.”

Adakai is a known narcotic trafficker, police said, and deals in marijuana, ecstasy, and hydrocodone, a pain drug.
“He’s almost legally blind,” Yearley said. “He only has an ID card, no driver’s license.”

The shooting started when people were playing basketball at the Indian Hills basketball courts at about 11:30 p.m. An argument about money escalated into a shooting when one of the men subsequently shot Curley in the abdomen and ankle with a .38-caliber pistol. Curley was taken to GIMC for treatment.

Police later found the pistol hidden in a mailbox in the Indian Hills neighborhood.

Adakai is being held on a $100,000 cash only bond, Captain Steve Silversmith of the county detention center said.