In the early morning hours of August 11, 2025, in Birmingham, Alabama, 51-year-old John Byron Roulaine was preparing to head to his job with ADW Temporary Staffing. Tragically, he would never make it. A violent confrontation in the 5500 block of First Avenue North in the Georgia Road neighborhood ended with Roulaine being fatally shot while inside his van.
When authorities arrived at approximately 4:30 a.m., they found him deceased at the scene.
The initial investigation by the Birmingham Police Department suggested that Roulaine had been involved in a fight with an assailant who fled after the shooting. For a week, the case remained without a named suspect, leaving a community searching for answers. The breakthrough came on August 18, 2025, when the Birmingham Police Department's Crime Reduction Team launched a fugitive investigation to track down a person of interest.
Their investigation quickly led them to 35-year-old Harold Dailey, who they determined had fled Birmingham and was hiding in New Orleans, Louisiana. In a collaborative effort, the Birmingham Police worked with the FBI's North Alabama Safe Streets Task Force and the FBI's New Orleans Violent Crime Squad. Together, they conducted surveillance on Dailey's whereabouts.
On Monday, August 18, 2025, law enforcement officers located and arrested Harold Dailey without incident in the 1100 block of Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard in New Orleans. Dailey was taken into custody and booked into the Orleans Parish Justice Center, where he was held on an outstanding capital murder warrant for the death of John Byron Roulaine. Following his arrest, authorities announced that the shooting was believed to be a targeted crime and that Dailey would be extradited back to Birmingham to face the capital murder charge. Information regarding a trial or conviction has not been made publicly available.
