A 31-year-old man shot and killed his seven young children and a cousin and critically wounded his spouse and one other girl Sunday morning in northwestern Louisiana, authorities stated, a stunning act of violence that marks the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in more than two years.
“This is a tragic situation, maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had in Shreveport,” Mayor Tom Arceneaux stated in a information convention.
The rampage was “domestic in nature,” Shreveport police Cpl. Chris Bordelon stated.
Here’s what we all know.
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Early morning quiet damaged by gunfire
Shamar Elkins shot his spouse, one other girl and eight children at two separate properties within the space, based on police.
Just earlier than 6 a.m., Shreveport police acquired a name from somebody on the roof of a home on West 79th Street, who stated a suspect inside had simply shot somebody, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith stated at a information convention Monday.
A couple of minutes later, one other name got here in informing police the suspect was a member of the family of the caller, and dispatch was informed 9 folks lived on the dwelling, Smith stated.
“The caller further stated that the suspect, identified as Shamar Elkins, had shot everyone inside the home at 6 a.m. One minute later, the caller advised that she and her children had fled from the roof and were now in the backyard; 6:01 a.m. officers arrived on the scene,” Smith stated.
Minutes later, police acquired a name about one other capturing on Harrison Street. A girl stated her boyfriend had shot her, taken her three children and fled the scene, Smith stated. The caller recognized the suspect as Elkins, and by 6:10 a.m., authorities realized the shootings have been linked, the chief stated.
Around 6:15 a.m., Elkins, armed with a firearm, carjacked a automobile — which police believed on the time could have had children inside — and led authorities on a chase into Bossier Parish, police stated.
At 6:29 a.m., officers shot Elkins, who was pronounced lifeless on the scene at 7:03 a.m., Smith stated.
The youngest sufferer, Jayla Elkins, was simply 3 years previous, authorities stated.
The different children killed are Shayla Elkins, 5; Kayla Pugh, 6; Layla Pugh, 7; Markaydon Pugh, 10; Sariahh Snow, 11; Khedarrion Snow, 6; and Braylon Snow, 5, based on the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office.
Elkins’ spouse has “very serious injuries,” Bordelon informed NCS affiliate KSLA. The different girl has “life-threatening injuries,” he added; her title has not but been launched.
As the capturing unfolded, among the children tried to flee out the again door, state Rep. Tammy Phelps stated throughout a information convention with different metropolis officers.
The picture exhibits Shamar Elkins, 31, and his spouse, Shaneiqua Pugh, 34. Elkins fatally shot his seven children and a cousin and critically wounded Pugh early Sunday, police stated. – Shaneiqua Elkins/Facebook
A 13-year-old boy who jumped off the constructing’s roof has “some broken bones” however is predicted to recuperate, based on Bordelon.
“We’re just very thankful he was able to get away,” Bordelon stated.
The gunman fled towards a tire store, a neighbor who requested to not be recognized informed NCS, citing video captured by her safety digicam.
Armed with a rifle, Elkins carjacked a automobile and led police on a chase into Bossier Parish, Bordelon stated. Police shot and killed the gunman, simply throughout the Red River from Shreveport, the division said on Facebook.
“Officers were forced to discharge their department-issued firearms, neutralizing the suspect, who was pronounced deceased at the scene,” Shreveport police stated.
Police are nonetheless working to find out “a complete motive and understanding as to why this happened, but it is domestic in nature,” Bordelon informed KSLA.
Family says gunman had rocky marriage
Elkins married his spouse, 34-year-old Shaneiqua Pugh, about two years in the past, public data present.
Elkins and his spouse have been in the course of separating and had been arguing previous to the capturing, Crystal Brown, a relative of one of many wounded girls, informed The Associated Press.
Elkins was pressured about his relationship together with his spouse, his mom and stepfather informed The New York Times on Sunday. He had informed them his spouse needed a divorce, and he was drowning in “dark thoughts,” the couple informed the Times.
“I told him, ‘You can beat stuff, man. I don’t care what you’re going through, you can beat it,’” Elkins’ stepfather, Marcus Jackson, informed the newspaper. “Then I remember him telling me: ‘Some people don’t come back from their demons.’”
NCS has reached out to members of the family, mates and neighbors who knew Elkins and Pugh.
A photograph posted to Facebook exhibits Elkins, 31, together with his children on Easter, two weeks earlier than the capturing. “Happy Easter had a wonderful time at church for the first time with all my kids what a blessed day,” he wrote. – Shamar Elkins/Facebook
Elkins posted a picture of himself together with his children on his Facebook web page on April 5, saying he had attended an Easter church service for the primary time with all of his children.
Four days later, he reposted an inspirational prayer from one other Facebook web page that started, “Dear God, Today I ask You to help me guard my mind and my emotions.”
The prayer additionally asks for power to “reject” melancholy, anger, nervousness and panic.
Elkins was within the Louisiana Army National Guard as a sign help system specialist and a hearth help specialist, an Army spokesperson informed NCS. He was by no means deployed and left the Army in 2020 as a personal.
He had at the very least two prior prison convictions in Caddo District Court, data present. He was arrested in March 2019 on a cost of unlawful use of weapons and carrying a firearm on college property and driving whereas intoxicated in 2016.
A photograph exhibits Shamar Elkins, whom the Shreveport Police Department says is “the individual responsible for this heinous act” through which eight children have been shot and killed. – Shreveport Police Department
In the 2019 incident, a police officer wrote in an arrest report that Elkins pulled a 9-millimeter handgun from his pants and shot at a automobile 5 occasions after the motive force of the automotive pulled a gun on him and “took off.” The capturing occurred close to a schoolyard the place children have been taking part in, the officer wrote, based on the courtroom paperwork.
Leader calls killing ‘the result when someone snaps’
City Councilmember Tabatha Taylor broke down in tears and requested folks to make higher use of assets to handle psychological well being challenges.
“This is not a freaking joke! This is real, and this is the result when someone snaps,” stated Taylor.
Investigators will decide whether or not this was a case of household annihilation — a deliberate try to wipe out one’s household — former FBI Deputy Director and NCS senior legislation enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe stated.
“I think the work to be done now is to go back and try to see those signs that were there for family members for likely his spouse, for friends, for others,” McCabe stated, “and work with the community on better understanding what steps to take when someone around you is spiraling into that sort of a depression.”
Community members in Shreveport, Louisiana reply to Sunday’s mass capturing. – Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The capturing is the deadliest within the US since January 2024, when a 23-year-old man shot eight people, most of them his relations, in a Chicago suburb.
There have been at the very least 114 mass shootings within the US to this point this 12 months, based on the Gun Violence Archive, which, like NCS, defines a mass capturing as one through which 4 or extra persons are shot, not together with the shooter.
Shreveport’s mayor described the scene within the metropolis of simply over 180,000 folks as “horrific,” and informed NCS the capturing “rattles the entire city.”
“Our community is grieving the unimaginable loss of innocent children. There are no words that can make sense of it, and no distance that shields us from it,” Arceneaux stated in a statement, urging the neighborhood to return collectively to help each other.
“We must not ignore the deeper issues – violence in the home, untreated trauma, and the silence that allows both to grow,” he wrote.
The eight children’s deaths greater than double the variety of homicides in Shreveport and Caddo Parish this 12 months, based on the coroner’s workplace.
Multiple legislation companies are investigating what led to the tragedy, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill stated.
“We do not yet know all the details, but I am deeply saddened by the senseless loss of life. I’m praying for the victims and their family members in the wake of this devastating violence,” Murrill wrote in a statement.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson, who represents the Shreveport space in Congress, called the killings “heartbreaking.”
“We’re holding the victims, their families and loved ones, and our Shreveport community close in our thoughts and prayers during this incredibly difficult time,” Johnson stated.
People attend a candlelight vigil after eight children have been killed and two girls wounded throughout a mass capturing in Shreveport, Louisiana, early Sunday. – Brandon Bell/Getty Images
At a vigil Sunday night in Shreveport, neighborhood members gathered to mild candles and lay flowers and stuffed animals as tributes to the children killed.
“It makes you take your children and hug them and hold them and tell them how much you love them because you just don’t know,” vigil attendee Kimberlin Jackson informed the AP.
NCS’s Chris Boyette, Alaa Elassar, Leah Asmelash, Amanda Jackson, Sharif Paget, Andy Rose and Sneha Dhandapani contributed to this report.
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