WCV News 24

 

Louisiana gunman was father of 7 of the 8 children he killed, police say

A man killed eight children, seven of them his own, across three Shreveport, Louisiana, homes early Sunday, according to police. It marks the nation’s deadliest mass shooting since January 2024.

The children who died ranged in age from 1 to 12, Shreveport Police Cpl. Chris Bordelon told the Associated Press. Police said earlier the ages ranged from 1 to 14.

“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.

Bordelon identified the gunman as Shamar Elkins.

The gunman was fatally shot by officers after carjacking a vehicle and leading police on a chase into the next parish, Bordelon said. The Louisiana State Police are investigating the officer-involved shooting.

Two adult women, including the mother of the children, were also shot in Sunday’s attack, Bordelon told KSLA. The mother of the children had ” very serious injuries” and the other woman has “life threatening injuries,” he added.

“It rattles the entire city,” Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux said. “It affects us all.”

Arceneaux said in an earlier news conference a teenager who survived Sunday’s attack had “non-life threatening injuries.”

There have been at least 114 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which like CNN defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter.

Shreveport, which is about 250 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, has about 180,000 residents. More than 30% of the murders in the city are domestic in relation, said city councilman Grayson Boucher.

A ‘horrific scene’

Police responded to reports of shots fired in the Cedar Grove community of Shreveport just after 6 a.m. CT and found victims in two homes along West 79th Street and a third home on Harrison Street, Bordelon said.

“This is a very large scene with multiple deceased children present,” Bordelon said.