On the morning of March 1, 2026, Precious Elicia J’anae Johnson, 24, gave birth to her first child at the women’s center inside Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital in Homewood, Alabama. Hours later, she was dead. Investigators say her husband, 19-year-old Kynath Terry, shot her inside her recovery room, then turned the gun on himself. The newborn survived.
The Homewood Police Department responded to the hospital shortly after the shooting and confirmed both Johnson and Terry were pronounced dead at the scene. Officers described the case as an apparent murder-suicide and said the violence appeared to be domestic in nature. No other patients or staff were harmed.
What happened inside the hospital room
According to police and family members who spoke to reporters, Johnson had delivered the baby earlier that day and was recovering in a patient room on the women’s center floor when Terry opened fire. The shooting did not occur in a hallway or public area. It happened in the room where Johnson and the newborn had been resting, a space that minutes earlier had been the site of a family’s first moments together.
Detectives have not publicly disclosed a motive or said whether there was a known history of domestic violence between the couple. The investigation remains active, and authorities have not released details about how Terry brought a firearm into the hospital. Family members, speaking through social media posts and to local news outlets, confirmed the couple had been married and that the baby was their first child together.
Lockdown and the aftermath
The gunfire triggered an immediate lockdown across the Brookwood campus. Police units flooded the property, and a shelter-in-place order kept patients, visitors, and staff behind closed doors while officers cleared the building room by room. The lockdown was lifted after investigators confirmed the shooting was confined to a single patient room and that no active threat remained.
Baptist Health has not publicly detailed what visitor screening procedures were in place at the women’s center at the time of the shooting. Alabama state law does not broadly prohibit firearms on hospital property, though individual facilities can set their own weapons policies. Whether Terry passed through any security checkpoint or screening before reaching Johnson’s room is among the questions investigators and hospital administrators have yet to answer publicly.
Security concerns at healthcare facilities
Local reporting from WVTM 13 noted that the shooting has intensified an already difficult conversation about security on maternity floors, where open visiting hours and a culture of welcoming family members can conflict with the need to control access. Maternity units in many hospitals use badge-locked doors and infant security tags but do not routinely screen adult visitors with metal detectors or bag checks.
The Brookwood shooting is not the first act of gun violence at a Birmingham-area hospital. In 2022, a man was shot and killed inside the emergency department at St. Vincent’s Hospital Birmingham, an incident that also prompted calls for tighter access controls. Each case renews the same tension: hospitals are designed to feel open and accessible, but that openness can leave patients vulnerable in ways few other settings do.
A family left to grieve and a baby left without parents
Relatives of Johnson and Terry now face the task of planning funerals while determining who will care for a newborn who lost both parents within hours of being born. Family members have described Johnson as a young woman excited about motherhood. Terry, still a teenager, had only just stepped into the role of father.
The Homewood Police Department has asked anyone with information about the case to contact investigators. The National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) is available 24 hours a day for anyone experiencing or concerned about domestic abuse.
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