A domestic massacre in Louisiana has left a city in mourning and a nation searching for answers after a 31-year-old former soldier opened fire across three homes in the early hours of Sunday morning.
In the grey quiet before dawn in Shreveport, Louisiana, a man drove to three separate homes, walked through their doors, and shot eight children dead. Seven of those children were his own. The youngest had not yet reached their second birthday. The oldest was twelve.
By the time the sun had fully risen, the gunman — identified by police as Shamar Elkins, a 31-year-old US Army veteran — was himself dead, shot by officers following a car chase into a neighbouring parish.
Who Was Shamar Elkins? Inside the Life of the Louisiana Gunman
Shamar Elkins served in the Louisiana Army National Guard for seven years, departing in August 2020 without ever having been deployed, according to the US Army.
In March 2019, three years after completing his service, Shamar Elkins was arrested on charges of illegal use of weapons and carrying a firearm on school property, having fired five rounds at a moving vehicle from just 300 feet away from a Shreveport high school – directly in the direction of the school. He pleaded guilty to the weapons charge that October and was placed on 18 months’ probation. The firearm charge was dismissed.
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Nothing in the public record that followed would have easily forecast Sunday’s atrocity. On Facebook, Shamar Elkins had recently shared a photograph of himself posed alongside seven children. “Happy Easter had a wonderful time at church for the first time with all my kids what a blessed day,” he wrote beneath it.
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A fortnight later, on Saturday evening, hours before the killings, Shamar Elkins posted a photograph of his eldest daughter at a restaurant. “Lol!!!! Took my oldest on a lil 1 on 1 date had to catch her down bad ugh ugh,” the caption read, followed by a string of laughing emojis.
Yet in the days prior, something different had surfaced. On 9th April, Elkins had published what read as a prayer — or a plea.
“Dear God, Today I ask You to help me guard my mind and my emotions,” the post read. “When negativity arises, remind me to say, ‘It does not belong to me, in the name of Jesus.’ When depression tries to settle in, when anger rises, when anxiety or panic comes, give me the awareness to recognize what is not from You and the strength to reject it immediately in the name of JESUS.”
Eight Children Dead: What Happened in Louisiana’s Shreveport on Sunday Morning
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Shreveport Police Corporal Chris Bordelon confirmed that officers responded to reports of gunfire in the Cedar Grove neighbourhood shortly after 6 a.m. Central Time. Victims were discovered across two homes on West 79th Street and a third on Harrison Street.
The children who died ranged in age from one to twelve years old, though police had initially reported the range as one to fourteen.
A 13-year-old boy survived after leaping from a rooftop to escape, sustaining several broken bones. Two adult women were also shot — one of them the mother of Elkins’ children, who suffered very serious injuries; the other, the mother of the eighth child killed, remained in a life-threatening condition.
“This is a very large scene with multiple deceased children present,” Bordelon said.
After the shootings, Elkins carjacked a vehicle and led police on a chase into the neighbouring Bossier Parish, where he was fatally shot by officers. The Louisiana State Police are investigating the officer-involved shooting. No officers were injured.
“We are still working to determine a complete motive and understanding as to why this happened, but it is domestic in nature,” Bordelon told CNN affiliate KSLA.
Louisiana’s Shreveport Reacts: ‘How Do We Get Through This?’
The weight of what had occurred settled heavily over the city of roughly 180,000 people in the hours that followed. Officials gathered for a press conference, at which audible gasping was reported as a police representative read aloud the ages of the victims.
City Councillwoman Tabatha H. Taylor broke into tears. “I’m going to ask the community, along with prayer, with every mental health consultant, counselor, that is out here: This family and this community needs you,” she said. “I need you. Because how do we get through this?”
Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux called it a “tragic situation” and potentially the worst in the city’s history. “These are the kinds of moments that leave a lasting imprint — on our hearts, on our minds, and on our sense of safety,” he said, adding that the tragedy reaches “far beyond the scene itself.”
Police Chief Wayne Smith struggled to find language adequate to the moment. “My heart is just taken aback. I just cannot begin to imagine how such an event can occur,” he said. “I just don’t know what to say.”
State Representative Tammy Phelps, who spoke at a Sunday afternoon press conference, noted that children had attempted to flee through the back of the home during the attack.
Caddo Parish Public Schools Superintendent Keith Burton urged collective resolve: “We must take care of our children, support our families, and stand beside our educators and first responders who are carrying the weight of this moment.”
Political Response to Louisiana Mass Shooting
US House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was born in Shreveport and represents the area in Congress, described the killings as “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. And we are grateful to the Shreveport, Bossier, and Louisiana State Police for their swift response,” Johnson wrote on social media.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry offered condolences via Facebook: “We’re praying for everyone affected. We’re deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers and first responders working tirelessly on the scene.”
According to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as any incident in which four or more people are shot, not including the perpetrator, there have been at least 114 mass shootings in the US so far in 2025. Sunday’s attack in Shreveport is the deadliest since January 2024.
City Councillman Grayson Boucher noted that more than 30 per cent of murders in Shreveport are domestic in nature — a statistic that, in the wake of Sunday’s events, lands with particular and terrible weight.
The names of the eight children killed have not yet been released by police.
