Online Reporter
SHREVEPORT. — The man who shot and killed his seven children in the worst deadly mass shooting in the United States in two years, was once arrested in 2019 in a firearms case, in which he pleaded guilty.
Police have identified the gunman as Shamar Elkins, 31.
He escaped the scene of the shootings on Sunday in a carjacked vehicle and was chased by police, who then shot him dead.Nine children were at the second residence visited by the gunman.
One survived and was in a hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.
The coroner’s office said the children who were killed were identified by their mothers 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.
In total, Elkins shot dead eight children —seven of them his own — in the southern US state of Louisiana in an incident of domestic violence that spanned three locations, police said.
The early morning massacre at a house in the city of Shreveport was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States in more than two years, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.
Two women were shot and seriously injured, including the mother of some of the slain children.
Preliminary information indicated the suspect first shot one woman and then went to a nearby home where he killed the children.
Three boys and five girls aged between three and 11 were shot and killed, the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office said.
Seven of the children were siblings, and one was a cousin.
“At the end of that pursuit, the suspect exited the vehicle with a firearm, and ultimately our officers were forced to neutralise the suspect,” Bordelon told reporters.ABC affiliate KTBS reported that the two women were shot in the head.
Freddie Montgomery, 72, who lives across the street from the home where the children were killed said he saw police remove bodies from the house yesterday morning.
“At this time yesterday afternoon, all of those kids were in the front yard playing. And he was sitting on the porch,” Montgomery said.
One of Louisiana’s two US senators, Republican Bill Cassidy, called the incident an episode of “horrific violence” and wished the survivors a speedy recovery.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said he was “heartbroken.”
The US, where firearms are readily available, is a frequent scene of gun violence, with thousands of people killed every year. It has the highest rate of gun-related deaths among all developed nations.
Officers said the shooting began about 05:00 (10:00 GMT) on Sunday.
Neighbours described their shock to US media. Mack London, 71, told NBC News he had lived in the area for decades and that “nothing like this has ever happened on this street”.
The attack occurred across multiple locations. The father is alleged to have first shot a woman, before moving to a second location where he fired further shots at the children.
One of the victims was able to run away to a nearby home and called the authorities, police said.
Members of the family told US media that Elkins was facing a split from his wife.Elkins’s brother-in-law Troy Brown, told the Washington Post that he lived with the attacker, and that Elkins had been upset after his wife requested a divorce.
“After the first argument about the divorce, he acted like he was losing his mind,” he told the newspaper.
Crystal Brown, a cousin of one of the wounded women, told the AP news agency that the couple were separating and had been due to appear in court yesterday.“He murdered his children… he shot his wife,” she said.
The incident is the deadliest mass shooting in the US since January 2024, when eight victims were killed in Joliet, Illinois, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a nonprofit that tracks US gun violence. — RTE.ieBC
