Man kills 7 of his children plus another child in shooting in Louisiana
neighborhood
[April 20, 2026]
By SOPHIE BATES, LEKAN OYEKANMI, GERALD HERBERT and JOHN
SEEWER
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A Louisiana father fatally shot eight children,
including seven of his own, in an attack on his family Sunday morning
that stretched across two houses in a Shreveport neighborhood left
shaken by one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings in recent years,
police said.
Two women, including the gunman's wife who was the mother of their
children, were also shot and critically wounded, according to Shreveport
Police Department spokesperson Chris Bordelon. Officials said the
children — who were all killed in the same house — ranged in age from 3
to 11 years old.
The gunman, identified as 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, died after a police
pursuit that ended with officers firing on him, according to Bordelon.
Authorities did not say what may have set off the violence but Bordelon
said detectives were confident the shooting was “entirely a domestic
incident.”
The attack was the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. in more than two
years.
“I just don’t know what to say, my heart is just taken aback,”
Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said. “I cannot begin to imagine how
such an event could occur.”
Bordelon said police were familiar with Elkins, who had been arrested in
a 2019 firearms case, but he said officials were not aware of any other
domestic violence issues.
Police said the attacks began before sunrise in a neighborhood south of
downtown Shreveport when the suspect shot a woman at one home and then
drove to the other location “where this heinous act was carried out.”
Seven children were killed inside the second house, and one was found
dead on the roof after apparently trying to escape, Bordelon said.
Another child jumped off the roof and was expected to survive after
being taken to a hospital.
State Rep. Tammy Phelps said some children tried to get away through the
back door. “I can't even imagine what the police officers, first
responders actually dealt with when they got here today,” she said at a
news conference.
Family member says suspect was separating from his wife
The victims were three boys and five girls, according to the Caddo
Parish Coroner’s office.
Shamar Elkins and his wife were in the middle of separating and were due
in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, who is a cousin of one of the
wounded women. Brown said the couple had been arguing about the
separation before the shooting.
“He murdered his children," Brown said. “He shot his wife.”
Elkins shared four children with his wife and three children with
another woman who lived close by and who was also shot, according to
Brown. All the children were together at one house, she said.
Brown described all the children as “happy kids, very friendly, very
sweet.”
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Councilman Reverend James Green consoles people outside the scene of
a mass shooting, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Shreveport, La. (AP
Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A neighbor wakes up to a mass shooting
Liza Demming, who lives two houses down from where most of the
victims were shot, said her security camera captured video of the
suspect running away along with the sound of two shots.
“That’s pretty much all I saw, was him running out of the house and
the cars leaving,” she said.
Demming later went outside and saw the covered body of a child on
the home’s roof.
Pastor Marty T. Johnson Sr., of nearby St. Gabriel Community Baptist
Church, who owns one of the homes where the shootings occurred, said
a person who works for him had rented it to the family, but he never
had dealings with them.
“What began as a domestic dispute has ended in irreversible harm,”
the parish's district attorney’s office said in a statement.
Shreveport is overwhelmed by grief
It was the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. since eight people
were killed in a Chicago suburb in January 2024, according to a
database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in
partnership with Northeastern University.
At a news conference outside the residence where one of the
shootings occurred, officials appeared stunned, requesting patience
and prayers from the community as they sorted through multiple crime
scenes.
“This is a tragic situation — maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve
ever had,” said Tom Arceneaux, mayor of the city in northwestern
Louisiana with about 180,000 residents. “It’s a terrible morning.”
Hours after the shooting, mourners gathered outside the single-story
house on 79th Street and laid flowers. One door appeared stained
with blood. Later that evening at a nearby prayer vigil, Kimberlin
Jackson joined other members of the community who lit candles for
the victims in a parking lot.
“It just makes you take your children and hug them and hold them and
tell them how much you love them,” she said.
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