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Police have identified the gunman who killed eight children in Louisiana in the deadliest US mass shooting since 2024
Police said the attack stemmed from a domestic disturbance and left 10 people shot, including eight children and two women.
- On Sunday, April 19, 2026, 31-year-old Army veteran Shamar Elkins shot and killed eight children across multiple Shreveport, Louisiana homes in a domestic attack. Elkins died following a police pursuit and officer-involved shooting in neighboring Bossier City.
- Authorities described the incident as a domestic disturbance stemming from Elkins' separation from his wife. Family members said he had recently struggled with mental health and expressed suicidal thoughts, telling relatives on Easter he was "drowning in dark thoughts."
- Seven of the eight children killed were Elkins' own, with the eighth being a cousin, according to the Caddo Parish Coroner's Office. Two adult women, including his wife, were critically wounded but survived the attack.
- Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux called the event a "tragic situation," describing it as perhaps the worst in the city's history. Officials began providing counseling services to affected schools, first responders, and grieving families.
- Investigators are probing how Elkins obtained the weapon despite a 2019 conviction for illegal use of firearms, raising questions about enforcement of weapons prohibitions. The attack marks the deadliest U.S. mass shooting since January 2024.
348 Articles
348 Articles
Mass shooting in Shreveport, La., a case of domestic violence, local authorities confirm
Just 10 days after local authorities in Caddo Parish, La., announced a new domestic violence unit, a father killed eight children, including seven of his own, and injured two women in Shreveport, officials said during a news conference on Monday — the worst mass shooting in the United States in more than two years.
The assailant, identified as Shamar Elkins, was the father of seven of the victims. He suffered mental health problems and was about to divorce
Rutland Herald
Louisiana community is struggling to understand after man killed 8 children
Police say a Louisiana man who fatally shot seven of his children and another child used an an assault-style weapon despite a 2019 felony firearms conviction. The attack early Sunday in Shreveport, Louisiana, was one of the nation’s deadliest mass…
Officials probing how Louisiana gunman who killed 8 children got the weapon
SHREVEPORT, La. — Investigators are looking into how a former National Guardsman identified as the gunman who killed eight children in Louisiana on Sunday got a gun — despite an illegal firearms conviction on his record
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