Nadiya Dayana Elise Perkins, a 19-year-old woman, was killed on March 4, 2026, in Huntsville after a morning shooting at the Candlewood Apartments in the 200 block of Julia Street. Officers were sent there around 9 a.m. on a shots-fired call, and Perkins was found with a gunshot wound. The Madison County coroner later ruled her death a homicide. Authorities identified her as being from Montgomery, and Alabama A&M University confirmed she was one of its students, turning what began as a
neighborhood crime scene into a loss felt across both the campus and the wider community.
In the first hours after her death, police released very little about what had happened, and the case moved as an active homicide investigation. By March 6, investigators had named a suspect: Ahmad Khalil Barney, 20, of Huntsville. City officials said he was wanted on a murder warrant in connection with Perkins’ death. That same day, law enforcement agencies launched a coordinated search after developing information that he might be in a wooded area near Jordan Road and Shields Road. Officers, investigators, K-9 units and drones joined the effort, and after following new tips, police located Barney at a residence on Century Street, where he was arrested without incident shortly after 2 p.m.
The case quickly shifted from a homicide investigation to a prosecution. Court reporting published days later said Barney was charged with murder in Perkins’ killing and was being held without bond on that charge. Reports also said prosecutors moved to revoke his bond in an unrelated earlier case involving receiving stolen property tied to a firearm, arguing that his new arrest changed the picture of his release status. As of the latest reporting I found, Barney is the only publicly identified suspect or arrestee in the case, and no additional suspects, trial, or conviction had yet been reported.
What remains in the public record is the outline of a young life cut short with shocking speed: a student from Montgomery, mourned by her university and family, killed in Huntsville on an ordinary Wednesday morning before the day had fully begun. Her obituary described her death as untimely, while the criminal case that followed began moving almost immediately, with investigators, officers, and prosecutors piecing together what happened in those final moments and pushing the case toward the courts.
