From parsley to gunfire: The bizarre NJ neighbor feud that turned deadly

🚓 Police called often
🚓 Neighbors argued for years
🚓 Ends in homicidal and suicidal rage

Berkeley Shores is a quiet, well-to-do marina community of handsome homes with boats parked in some driveways and more docked out back in the waterways flowing behind each street.

Vast tidal marshes and the Barnegat Bay buffer the waterfront development from the hubub of the Jersey Shore.

But in the early evening of March 10, the peace of the pre-summer season was shattered.

Just before 5 p.m., John Adamo stood outside 11 Drake Drive, the Berkeley Township home he had owned with his wife since 2018. A stately 2-story home with beige stucco, solar panels on the roof and a front yard of decorative white stone.

He fired a gun, shooting his next-door neighbor Tom Kwatkoski, who had lived at  7 Drake Drive since 2001.

Adamo fired again, a bullet piercing the wall of the blue rancher and striking Tom's wife, Jill.

As her husband bled nearly to death, a critically wounded Jill Kwatkoski called 911 to plead for help.

By the time SWAT team members blasted the front door off 11 Drake Drive, the 54-year-old Adamo had shot and killed himself.

Police records obtained by New Jersey 101.5 show that years before the gunfire erupted, tensions were brewing between the Kwatkoskis and their Staten Island neighbors.

Even if one didn't know about the police calls, they could see evidence of trouble from the menacing black-and-red “private property” signs and security cameras on either side of the property line.

In the white space of one "no trespassing" sign on the Kwatkoskis' side, one of them had scrawled, to leave no doubt for who the warning was meant: "Mr. and Mrs. Adamo!!!!"

To an outside observer, it was a bizarre conflict — but one that would prove deadly.

Read More: Attempted double murder in Ocean County, police say

Adamo's own family frustrated by feud

On Aug. 25, 2023, police took a report from a relative of the Adamos who described a falling out with their family just because they had spoken to their neighbor.

“My family and I stayed at our in-law's house, and it was not a pleasant stay due to their issues with the neighbors at 7 Drake Drive. My partner and I eventually spoke to the neighbors and we were told to leave by our in-laws for interacting with the neighbor,” the relative said in the police statement.

“We left on August 18, 2023 and I left my phone at the house by mistake. John Adamo found my phone. He was angry at the action of my family talking to the neighbor and threw my phone into the water in their backyard,” the statement said. "As a result of his actions, I cannot access anything like my email or online banking."

Flurry of police calls

In early spring last year, the first of a cluster of police reports was filed on March 4, 2024.

The incident on a Monday at 8 p.m. was called into Berkeley township police by Elizabeth Adamo reporting harassment.

Adamo said she was taking recycling to the curb when neighbor Tom Kwatkoski pulled up in his vehicle and said he “couldn't see her with the floodlights on.”

At this point, there were lights and cameras installed along the shared property line.

Adamo said that when she ignored him, he used a “condescending voice to say ‘Hello Liz.’”

The written report was made at the request of Mrs. Adamo for documentation.

Yelling 'parsley and chives'

Just over a month later, also on a Monday night at April 15, Elizabeth Adamo called police to report a new instance of harassment.

She showed responding officers a home surveillance video of Tom Kwatkoski yelling “parsley and chives” and his son honking a car horn.

Adamo told police it was a reference to her husband being a chef.

She then requested that the officer not go speak to the neighbor, citing an ongoing legal dispute for which she wanted further “documentation” in a report.

Watching on cameras

Very early the next morning, just before 2 a.m., police were called back to Adamos' house.

This time, both John and Elizabeth Adamo described Kwakoski yelling the word “ingredients” the night before. They also said the neighbor stood outside doing a “routine” as picked up by their motion sensor security cameras.

The couple also said that Kwakoski shook his fist at their camera, though it did not happen while either of them were outside, according to the report.

They asked the police to go ask the neighbor to stop the “incidents” for the night.

When the officers walked over to the Kwatkoski home, Tom Kwatkoski said he felt like his neighbors were the problem and that he didn’t do anything to them, the report said.

He also said the dispute had been going on “for about two years.”

When the officers returned to 11 Drake Drive, John Adamo said that Kwatkoski had given the middle finger to his security camera.

Later the same day, around 5 p.m. the Adamos again called police for ongoing harassment allegations. They said they had video footage of Kwatkoski raising his hand or finger, which Elizabeth Adamo felt was a threat.

A third time that day, police were called by Elizabeth Adamo.

This time, she wanted to document Kwatkoski moving a tire in his driveway while saying, “weighs a lot, like John.”

She reported it as harassment for her ongoing litigation, she told police.

Police decline to press charges

A couple days later, around 7:30 a.m., Elizabeth Adamo visited the Berkeley Police Department and was seen “crying hysterically in the lobby.”

She told police she was being harassed and threatened by her neighbor and then showed two surveillance security videos of Tom Kwatkoski in his yard.

In one video, he walks out with a garbage bag and says that he is “taking the Liz out.”

In the second video, he makes a remark about the Adamos constantly calling the police, the report said.

In response to police questions, Elizabeth Adamo said her neighbors had not spoken directly to her, approached her or went on her property.

The comments had been made hours earlier and were recorded on the security footage, which she had been reviewing.

Adamo was informed that no charges of harassment were warranted.

She requested that police talk to Tom Kwatkoski. He told them he was frustrated with the ongoing dispute.

The last call to police

No police reports were on record for the rest of last spring.

On July 24, 2024, Elizabeth Adamo called the police after a code enforcement officer went to their house to inspect weeds growing by a fence.

She claimed the call had been made by Tom Kwatkoski and she wanted to review how many times the neighbors had called in complaints as a form of harassment.

Police found no such harassment, saying any complaints filed were “founded and remedied within days.”

That was the last police record that Berkeley provided to New Jersey 101.5 as part of an Open Public Records Act request.

Less than a year later, the gunfire erupted.

The Kwatkowskis are recovering from their injuries, according to a GoFundMe campaign created in their benefit that had received at least 300 donations.

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