Rap music may have played a role in stabbing death in Peoria

A man arrested on suspicion of killing a 17-year-old boy in a Peoria Circle K says he killed the teenager, who did not say or do anything to threaten him, because he was listening to rap music, police said.

The suspect, 27-year-old Michael Paul Adams, admitted to stabbing the teenager at about 1:42 a.m. Thursday after he heard him playing rap music in his vehicle in the Circle K parking lot, according to police records filed in Superior Court.

Adams had just been released from the Arizona State Prison Complex in Yuma on Tuesday, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Adams told police rap music makes him feel “unsafe” because he had been attacked by people who listen to rap music in the past, the records state. He also said people who listen to rap music are a threat to him and the community.

The suspect said he felt threatened by the music — not the teen himself — so he needed to be “proactive rather than reactive,” police records said.

Surveillance footage shows the teen walking into the convenience store and Adams walking in a few seconds later. Adams walked around the store before lunging at the teen, according to records. Adams used his pocketknife to stab the teen in the back and slit his throat, the records show.

The teen ran out of the store before collapsing underneath the gas pump canopy where police personnel began CPR.

He was taken to a hospital, but died at 2:05 a.m., according to police records.

Adams was arrested on 67th Avenue near the Circle K.