Authorities identify 8 young children shot and killed by a Louisiana father

By Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) — Eight children, ranging in age from just 3 to 11 years old, were killed early Sunday morning in Shreveport, Louisiana, in a shocking act of violence that marks the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in more than two years.

A father, identified as 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, fatally shot his seven children and a cousin, and critically wounded two women, including his wife, in a rampage across at least two locations before sunrise.

After the shooting, which authorities described as “domestic in nature,” the gunman fled the area in a carjacked vehicle and was pursued by police, who shot and killed him.

The Caddo Parish Coroner’s office identified the victims 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.

As the shooting unfolded, some children tried to escape out the back door, said state Rep. Tammy Phelps during a news conference with other city officials. A 13-year-old boy escaped from the roof and was injured, police said.

Much about the circumstances and the motive of the shooting remains unclear.

“This is a tragic situation, maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had in Shreveport,” Mayor Tom Arceneaux said in a news conference.

As police continue to piece together what led to the massacre, here’s what we know so far.

How the shooting unfolded

Police first responded to reports of shots fired in the Cedar Grove community of Shreveport, a northwestern Louisiana city with about 180,000 residents, just after 6 a.m. local time Sunday morning, according to Shreveport Police Cpl. Chris Bordelon.

Police believe Elkins first shot his wife at a residence on Harrison Street. Then he went to another home on West 79th St., where he shot the eight children and the other woman, the mother of the eighth child killed.

Elkins’ wife sustained “very serious injuries,” Bordelon told CNN affiliate KSLA. The other woman has “life threatening injuries,” he added.

Arceneaux told CNN the gunman is believed to have had a relationship with the two women.

The 13-year-old boy who jumped off the building’s roof and was injured has “some broken bones,” but is expected to recover, according to Bordelon.

“We’re just very thankful he was able to get away,” Bordelon said.

A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said her security camera captured video of what appears to be the gunman fleeing and running towards a tire shop.

Armed with a rifle, Elkins carjacked a vehicle and led police on a chase into the next parish, Bordelon said. Police shot and killed the gunman in Bossier Parish, the department said on Facebook.

“Officers located the stolen vehicle and initiated a pursuit. The pursuit continued into Bossier Parish, where officers ultimately engaged the suspect. Officers were forced to discharge their department-issued firearms, neutralizing the suspect, who was pronounced deceased at the scene,” Shreveport police said.

The shooting is the deadliest in the US since January 2024, when a 23-year-old man shot eight people, most of them his relatives, in a Chicago suburb.

There have been at least 114 mass shootings in the US 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.

Police are still working to determine “a complete motive and understanding as to why this happened, but it is domestic in nature,” Bordelon told KSLA.

Who was the gunman?

Elkins had spent seven years in the Louisiana Army National Guard, from August 2013 to August 2020, as a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist, an Army spokesperson told CNN. He was never deployed and left the Army in 2020 as a private.

He had at least two prior criminal convictions in Caddo District Court, records show. He was arrested in March 2019 on a charge of illegal use of weapons and carrying a firearm on school property and driving while intoxicated in 2016.

In the 2019 incident, a police officer wrote in an arrest report that Elkins pulled a 9-millimeter handgun from his pants and shot at a vehicle five times after the driver of the car pulled a gun on him and “took off.” The shooting occurred near a school where children were playing outside, the officer wrote, according to the court documents.

Records show Elkins married his wife, 34-year-old Shaneiqua Pugh, about two years ago.

Family of Elkins told the New York Times that he was stressed about his relationship with his wife. Elkins had called his mother and stepfather and told them his wife wanted a divorce and he was drowning in “dark thoughts,” the couple told the Times.

Elkins and his wife were in the middle of separating and had been arguing prior to the shooting, Crystal Brown, a relative of one of the wounded women, told the Associated Press.

CNN has sought to reach family members, friends and neighbors who knew Elkins and Pugh.

How are officials responding?

Mayor Arceneaux described the scene of the shooting as “horrific,” and told CNN the shooting “rattles the entire city.”

“Our community is grieving the unimaginable loss of innocent children. There are no words that can make sense of it, and no distance that shields us from it,” Arceneaux said in a statement, urging the community to come together to support one another.

“We must not ignore the deeper issues – violence in the home, untreated trauma, and the silence that allows both to grow,” he wrote.

City councilwoman Tabatha Taylor broke down in tears when speaking of the events and appealed to mental health counselors to support everyone left reeling by the tragedy.

“This family and this community needs you,” she said. “I need you – because how do we get through this?”

The eight children’s deaths more than double the number of homicides in Shreveport and Caddo Parish this year, according to the coroner’s office.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said multiple law agencies are investigating what led the tragedy.

“We do not yet know all the details, but I am deeply saddened by the senseless loss of life. I’m praying for the victims and their family members in the wake of this devastating violence,” Murrill wrote in a statement.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson, who represents the Shreveport area in Congress, called the killings “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,” Johnson said.

At a vigil Sunday evening in Shreveport, community members gathered to light candles and lay flowers and stuffed animals as tributes to the children killed.

“It makes you take your children and hug them and hold them and tell them how much you love them because you just don’t know,” vigil attendee Kimberlin Jackson told the AP.

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CNN’s Chris Boyette, Alaa Elassar, Leah Asmelash, Amanda Jackson and Sneha Dhandapani contributed to this report.