{"id":1498835,"date":"2026-04-21T05:26:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1498835"},"modified":"2026-04-21T08:01:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T13:01:41","slug":"louisiana-community-is-struggling-to-understand-after-man-killed-eight-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1498835","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana community is struggling to understand after man killed eight children"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) \u2014 A stunned Louisiana city struggled to come to grips Monday with the massacre of eight children<\/a> carried out by a father who was separating from his wife and used an assault-style weapon despite a 2019 felony firearms conviction.<\/p>\n

The violence reverberated across Shreveport<\/a> a day after the nation\u2019s deadliest mass shooting in two years. Schools brought in counselors for the victims’ young classmates and community leaders called for a city-wide reckoning on stopping domestic violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot afford to wait until the next crisis,\u201d said Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn. \u201cWe owe it to the eight children who were lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shooter, identified as Shamar Elkins, killed seven of his children and a nephew<\/a>, police said. His wife and another woman were also shot and wounded.<\/p>\n

Shooter \u2018just snapped,\u2019 brother-in-law says<\/h4>\n

Elkins had voluntarily checked into a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in January for just over a week for mental health treatment, said his brother-in-law, Troy Brown, who lived in the house with his wife, Keosha Pugh, and was at work during the attack. Elkins appeared \u201cbetter when he came home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Elkins’ wife was seeking a divorce, which was causing him stress, Brown said. But everything seemed calm in the house when Brown left for work Saturday night, with the children playing games or watching TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I know is he just snapped,\u201d Brown told The Associated Press. \u201cIf I wouldn\u2019t have been at work, he was going to kill everybody in the house and that includes me.”<\/p>\n

Brown’s wife, who made a series of frantic calls for help when the shooting started, and their 12-year-old daughter escaped through the home’s roof, he said. His wife broke her pelvis after falling and has since had surgery, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said she was running for her life,\u201d said Lionel Pugh, an uncle of the two women shot. \u201cThe only ones he didn\u2019t kill was the ones who got away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elkins died after fleeing and a police pursuit. It was not clear whether he was killed by officers who fired or from a self-inflicted gunshot, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said.<\/p>\n

Officials said the children who died<\/a> \u2014 three boys and five girls \u2014 ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old.<\/p>\n

Brown said his 10-year-old son, who loved to go outside and run around and play with friends, was killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m never going to get to throw the football with him again,” he said \u201cI\u2019m never going to get to hear him say, \u2018Dad, can I get this bag of chips?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Elkins and his wife, identified by family members as Shaneiqua Elkins, were separating and had been due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of a woman shot in the attack. She said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.<\/p>\n

Family members described Shaneiqua Elkins as a doting mother, who celebrated her children\u2019s success in school.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe raised those kids right,\u201d Pugh said. \u201cThey were the center of her universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunman had no recent arrests for domestic violence, police say<\/h4>\n

While the shooter did not appear to have a long criminal history, court records showed Elkins was placed on probation in 2019 after pleading guilty to illegal use of weapons. In that case, Elkins fired five rounds at a vehicle and told police that someone inside it had pulled a gun on him, according to a police report.<\/p>\n

Based on Louisiana law, a person convicted of certain violent felonies \u2014 including illegal use of weapons \u2014 are banned from having a gun for at least 10 years after completing their sentence and probation.<\/p>\n

Authorities said Monday that how and when Elkins got the gun is being investigated.<\/p>\n

Louisiana, a reliably red state, has expanded access to guns in recent years. For years, Democrats in Louisiana have proposed bills to tighten gun control \u2014 or at least put \u201cred flag\u201d measures in place. But Republicans have routinely blocked such legislation.<\/p>\n

Investigators were not aware of other domestic violence issues involving Elkins, said police spokesperson Chris Bordelon.<\/p>\n

Elkins had served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020, said guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins. Elkins held the rank of private and had no deployments, Collins said.<\/p>\n

The violence started before sunrise Sunday<\/h4>\n

Authorities said the shooting erupted before dawn at two homes.<\/p>\n

Elkins shot a woman in a neighborhood south of downtown, and opened fire a few blocks away at the home where the children were targeted, police said.<\/p>\n

One of the victims, 5-year-old Braylon Snow, was getting ready for preschool graduation next month, said Laurance Guidry, president and CEO of Caddo Community Action Agency, which runs the Head Start program where Braylon was a student.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have the cap and gowns just like you would have when you were graduating from high school,\u201d Guidry said.<\/p>\n

Gov. Jeff Landry said during a news conference Monday that he thought he had seen evil up close after a truck attack last year on Bourbon Street<\/a> left 14 dead. \u201cBut the tragedy that unfolded this weekend seems to have eclipsed that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Landry announced that the foundation created by the state\u2019s first lady will pay the children\u2019s funeral expenses.<\/p>\n

A relative says they were a joyful family<\/h4>\n

Francine Monro Brown, a cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she would often see the children playing in the yard on Sunday mornings when she drove past the house on her way to church.<\/p>\n

\u201cHappy children, joyful children. Shaneiqua is a great mother, She provided a great home for the kids,\u201d Brown said as she stood near a growing memorial of stuffed teddy bears, flowers and pink and blue balloons.<\/p>\n

Betty Pugh, another cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she was always with her children. \u201cThat was the way we were taught: to love our kids, to take care of our kids. And that\u2019s what she did,\u201d Pugh said.<\/p>\n

The mayor of Shreveport, a city of about 180,000 residents in northwestern Louisiana, called it one of the city’s worst days.<\/p>\n

The shooting was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb<\/a>, according to a database<\/a> maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) \u2014 A stunned Louisiana city struggled to come to grips Monday with the massacre of eight children carried out by a father who was separating from his wife and used an assault-style weapon despite a 2019 felony firearms conviction. The violence reverberated across Shreveport a day after the nation\u2019s deadliest mass shooting … Continue reading Louisiana community is struggling to understand after man killed eight children<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2851],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1498835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news-archive"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 08:10:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1498835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1498836,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498835\/revisions\/1498836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1498835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1498835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1498835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}