Eight children are dead after a gunman went on a shooting rampage across multiple homes in Shreveport, Louisiana, early Sunday morning. The youngest was just 3 years old. The oldest was 11. Seven of the eight were the shooter’s own children. It is the deadliest mass shooting in the United States in more than two years, and almost every detail about it is worse than the last.
What Happened Sunday Morning in Shreveport
The violence started sometime before 6 a.m. on Sunday, April 19, in the Cedar Grove neighborhood of northwest Shreveport. According to police, the gunman, identified as 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, first shot a woman on Harrison Street. That woman was his wife and the mother of his children. She suffered very serious injuries but is expected to survive.
Elkins then moved to a second home a few blocks away on West 79th Street near Linwood Avenue. Inside that home were children, ranging in age from 3 to 11. He opened fire and killed all eight of them. Seven of the children were his own. The eighth was a cousin. A second adult woman in the home, believed to be the mother of the eighth child, was also shot and is suffering from life-threatening injuries. A 13-year-old boy sustained injuries after fleeing the home and jumping from the roof.
After the shootings, Elkins fled. He carjacked a person at gunpoint near the intersection of Linwood Avenue and West 79th Street. A police pursuit followed, ending across the parish line in Bossier City, where officers shot and killed him. Louisiana State Police are now investigating that officer-involved shooting.
The Victims Were Between 3 and 11 Years Old
The Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office identified all eight children who were killed. They were Jayla Elkins, age 3. Shayla Elkins, age 5. Kayla Pugh, age 6. Layla Pugh, age 7. Markaydon Pugh, age 10. Sariahh Snow, age 11. Khedarrion Snow, age 6. And Braylon Snow, age 5.
Three boys and five girls. Seven siblings and one cousin. Their deaths mark the eighth through fifteenth homicides recorded in Shreveport so far this year. One city councilman pointed out that a single act more than doubled the city’s entire homicide count for 2026.
Read those names again if you need to. These were real kids. They had a combined age that barely cracks 50.
The Shooter Had a Criminal Record
Shamar Elkins was not an unknown figure to law enforcement. According to reports, he was arrested in 2019 on a firearms case after firing five rounds at a vehicle in an act of retaliation. That shooting happened next to a school. He also served in the Louisiana Army National Guard for seven years, ending his service in August 2020. He was never deployed.
Shreveport Police Corporal Chris Bordelon identified Elkins as the sole suspect and described the shooting as entirely domestic in nature. Investigators have not publicly said what set off the violence that morning, and as of Sunday evening, detectives were still collecting evidence and piecing together the full sequence of events across what police described as four interconnected crime scenes: two homes, the carjacking location, and the spot where Elkins was killed by officers.
The Scene Was Unlike Anything Officers Had Seen
Local officials did not hold back when describing what responders found. Corporal Bordelon called it an extensive scene unlike anything most officers have ever encountered. Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith addressed reporters and was visibly shaken. “I just don’t know what to say,” Smith said. “My heart is just taken aback. I just cannot begin to imagine how such an event can occur.”
Bordelon was blunt when speaking about the victims. “These victims, we have to do right by them,” he told reporters near the crime scene Sunday evening. He described the mass shooting as a heinous crime. There is no official word yet on a motive beyond the domestic violence characterization, and investigators have not said whether any kind of prior domestic dispute was reported to police before Sunday morning.
How the Police Pursuit Ended
After the shootings, Elkins carjacked a bystander at gunpoint near the scene. Shreveport police gave chase, and the pursuit crossed the Red River into neighboring Bossier Parish. It ended when officers fired at the suspect, killing him. Louisiana State Police confirmed that no officers were injured during the confrontation. State police detectives have taken over the investigation into the officer-involved shooting, as is standard procedure when police use lethal force.
Police are also asking anyone who may have pictures, video, or other information from Sunday morning to come forward and share it with investigators.
A Neighbor Caught It on Camera
Liza Demming lives just two houses down from one of the attack locations. She told reporters that her home security camera captured video of the suspect running away, along with the sound of two gunshots. Demming said she had seen Elkins with the children just days before the shooting. The ordinariness of that detail makes it all the more unsettling. A father with his kids one day. This the next.
The Cedar Grove neighborhood, a residential area of modest homes and chain-link fences, became the center of national grief on Sunday. Community members started gathering outside the crime scene tape within hours. People stood in the street, some in tears, some in silence. Local pastor Marty T. Johnson Sr. of nearby St. Gabriel Community Baptist Church announced plans to hold a prayer vigil and help the families with burial costs for the children.
Officials Responded With Grief and Anger
Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux called it possibly the worst tragic situation Shreveport has ever experienced. He said the shooting rattled the entire city and affects everyone.
Shreveport City Councilman Grayson Boucher said he had struggled all morning with the news. He noted that over 30 percent of crimes and murders in Shreveport are domestic in nature, a statistic that feels especially grim on a day like this one.
Congressman Cleo Fields reacted by saying there are no words sufficient to capture the depth of this tragedy. “Eight young lives full of promise, innocence, and possibility are gone,” he said.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who represents the Shreveport area in Congress, called the killings heartbreaking and said the community was being held close in thoughts and prayers. He praised the swift response of Shreveport, Bossier, and Louisiana State Police.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said he and his wife Sharon were heartbroken and praying for everyone affected. The Caddo Parish District Attorney’s office issued a statement calling for collective attention, saying what began as a domestic dispute ended in irreversible harm.
The Deadliest Mass Shooting in Over Two Years
The Shreveport shooting is the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since January 2024. According to Gun Violence Archive data, not including this incident, there had already been at least 119 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2026 through mid-April, resulting in 117 deaths (including 79 children) and 458 people injured. The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed by gunfire.
That this one was domestic violence, carried out by a father against his own children, makes the numbers even harder to process. It was not a public space. It was not random. It was a man walking into a home where his kids slept and killing nearly all of them.
What Comes Next
As of Sunday evening, the investigation was still active. Detectives from both Shreveport Police and Louisiana State Police were working the four connected crime scenes. The two surviving adult women remained in the hospital, one with injuries described as very serious and the other with life-threatening wounds. The 13-year-old boy who jumped from the roof was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
The community in Cedar Grove is left with something that cannot be fixed. Eight children woke up Sunday morning, or maybe they never got the chance to. Either way, by sunrise, they were gone. The city of Shreveport is organizing vigils. Churches are opening their doors. Families are trying to figure out how to bury children who should have been playing outside this week.
Corporal Bordelon’s words keep coming back. “These victims, we have to do right by them.” There is not a person reading this who would disagree. The question, as always, is what doing right actually looks like when eight kids between the ages of 3 and 11 are already in the ground.
