Police say the attack began at one house before sunrise, spread to a second home nearby and ended with the suspect dead after a chase into Bossier City.
SHREVEPORT, La. — A Louisiana father killed eight children, including seven of his own, and wounded two women in a pair of Shreveport shootings before dawn Sunday, sending police across multiple connected crime scenes and leaving the city reeling from one of the worst crimes in its history.
By Monday, investigators were still trying to answer the central questions left by the attack: why Shamar Elkins, 31, opened fire inside two homes in the Cedar Grove area, how he obtained the weapons police say he used despite a prior gun conviction, and whether he died from police gunfire or a self-inflicted wound after the chase ended. What authorities did know was stark. The victims were children ages 3 to 11. Two women survived with serious injuries. One child escaped. City leaders, police and relatives all described the case as a domestic-violence disaster that reached across several families at once and stunned even veteran officers.
The first signs of the attack reached 911 at 5:55 a.m. Sunday, when a caller reported being on top of a house in the 300 block of West 79th Street and said someone inside had been shot. Within minutes, dispatchers were told the gunman was a relative, that multiple people had been shot inside, and that the caller and children had fled from the roof into the backyard. Officers arrived at 6:01 a.m., according to the timeline Police Chief Wayne Smith laid out Monday. But before they could fully sort the first scene, a second call came in at 6:07 a.m. from nearby Harrison Street, where a woman said her boyfriend had shot her, taken three children and fled. By 6:15 a.m., police had information that the suspect had carjacked a vehicle. Patrol officers encountered it on Interstate 49 minutes later. Gunfire was exchanged in Bossier City at about 6:29 a.m., and Elkins was pronounced dead at 7:03 a.m. Smith said the morning “will go down in history as one of the worst days” the city has faced.
What officers found at West 79th Street explained the shock in the voices of city officials. Eight children were dead in and around the house. Police spokesperson Christopher Bordelon said some were found in beds and others appeared to have been shot while trying to flee. One child was found near the roof, which investigators believe was part of an escape attempt. Another child survived by jumping from the roof and suffered broken bones, police said, but is expected to recover. Two women also survived the shootings: Elkins’ wife and another woman police believe was his girlfriend. Authorities said the attack appears to have started at Harrison Street, where Elkins shot the second woman, then forced three children into a vehicle and drove them to West 79th Street, where the killings continued. The Caddo Parish coroner identified the dead children as Jayla Elkins, 3; Shayla Elkins, 5; Kayla Pugh, 6; Layla Pugh, 7; Markaydon Pugh, 10; Sariahh Snow, 11; Khedarrion Snow, 6; and Braylon Snow, 5. Police have said seven were Elkins’ children, while the eighth was another related child who was not his son or daughter.
The case has also exposed a trail of warning signs that now hangs over the investigation. Court records show Elkins pleaded guilty in 2019 to illegal use of a weapon after a case in which police said he fired several rounds at a vehicle. Under Louisiana law, that conviction barred him from legally possessing a firearm for years after his sentence and probation. Yet investigators now say he used an assault-style weapon in Sunday’s shootings and may also have had a handgun, with ballistics work still underway to determine which weapon was used at which point in the rampage. Elkins also had served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020, according to military officials cited in current reporting. Relatives told reporters he and his wife had been separating and that he had recently struggled with mental health issues, including what family members described as dark thoughts. Police said Monday they were not aware of earlier domestic-violence complaints involving him. That mix of a prior weapons conviction, a family breakup and a rapidly escalating domestic dispute has become a central part of how officials and relatives are trying to understand what happened, even as they warn that no explanation can fully account for the killing of so many children in such a short stretch of time.
The procedural side of the case now extends well beyond the homicide scene itself. Shreveport police have said the investigation stretches across at least four connected locations: the house on Harrison Street, the house on West 79th Street, the site of the carjacking and the Bossier City neighborhood where the pursuit ended. Louisiana State Police have taken over the investigation into Elkins’ death because officers fired their weapons during the chase. As of Monday evening, authorities had not said whether the fatal shot came from police or from Elkins himself. Investigators are also working through autopsies, forensic testing and scene reconstruction, while the coroner’s office and police continue coordinating with families on the release of bodies and formal identifications. The city’s public response shifted quickly from emergency action to mourning. Prayer services and vigils were organized, local schools prepared to support students affected by the loss, and public officials began speaking in broader terms about domestic violence and the strain now placed on surviving relatives, classmates, officers, firefighters and hospital staff. What comes next in court may be limited because the gunman is dead, but the formal inquiries into the shootings, the firearm access and the police chase are only beginning.
By Monday, the physical scene in Cedar Grove had already become a place of grief as much as investigation. Flowers, candles and stuffed animals appeared outside the house. Neighbors who had seen the children playing only days earlier stood near the block in disbelief. Family members described the children as bright, active and deeply connected to one another. Francine Monro Brown, a relative quoted in current coverage, said she used to pass the home on Sunday mornings and see the children in the yard, calling them “happy” and “joyful.” Another neighbor, Marie Montgomery, described the sight of children being carried from the house as the worst thing she had ever seen. Mayor Tom Arceneaux said the city was facing “maybe the worst tragic situation” in its history. Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn said officials could not afford to treat the case as a horror to mourn and then forget. Even officers used unusually raw language to describe what they encountered. Bordelon told reporters and later PEOPLE that there was “blood and bodies everywhere,” a line that captured why the department said counseling support would be made available for first responders who answered the call.
As of Monday night, the toll remained eight children dead, two women hospitalized with serious injuries and one surviving child recovering from escape injuries. The next milestones are the completion of ballistic testing, the state police review of the officer-involved shooting, and further updates from investigators on motive, firearm access and the exact sequence inside the two homes.