Darryl Jay Barnes III, 34, a Black/African American male, was found dead on the evening of August 18, 2025, in Wilson, North Carolina, after officers responded to reports of gunshots on Chase Road around 6:25 p.m. He was identified by authorities that night, and funeral notices later confirmed his age and local ties to Wilson.
By the following day, Wilson police announced they had arrested 25-year-old Anthony Diante Atkinson, charging him with one count of murder and one count of
possession of a firearm by a felon. Atkinson was booked into the Wilson County Jail and held without bond as the investigation continued, with police describing the shooting as an isolated incident. Booking records for Atkinson on August 19, 2025, reflect the murder charge and his intake into the county facility.
Public memorial pages recorded that Darryl Jay Barnes III, 34, was lost to gun violence on August 18, 2025, in Wilson, and local obituary listings set services for late August. Together, these records trace the swift progression from the fatal shooting to an arrest while leaving unanswered the deeper questions of motive that investigators had not publicly detailed at that time.
