Tue, Apr 21, 2026 page5

• Eight children dead in US domestic violence

  • AFP, SHREVEPORT, Louisiana
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  A man shot dead eight children — seven of them his own — early on Sunday 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 gray house in the city of Shreveport was the deadliest mass shooting in the US 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.

  

  The Pugh and Elkins families gather while grieving the death of family members on Sunday in Shreveport, Louisiana.

  Photo: AFP

  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.

  A ninth child escaped with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

  Police identified the gunman as Shamar Elkins, 31, who was shot dead following a police chase after carjacking a vehicle.

  “At the end of that pursuit, the suspect exited the vehicle with a firearm, and ultimately our officers were forced to neutralize the suspect,” police Corporal Chris Bordelon told reporters.

  An AFP videographer at the scene saw five bullet holes in the white door of the small, two-story house. Well-wishers laid bouquets of flowers nearby.

  Freddie Montgomery, 72, who lives across the street, said he saw police remove bodies from the house on Sunday morning.

  “At this time yesterday afternoon, all of those kids were in the front yard playing. And he [Elkins] was sitting on the porch,” Montgomery told AFP.

  Bordelon said seven of the eight children were the shooter’s “own.”

  He said police “are still actively investigating, trying to determine the why” and were searching for evidence in a crime scene that spanned three locations.

  “We do believe him to be the only individual that fired gunshots at these locations,” he said, calling the incident a “domestic disturbance.”

  Elkins is believed to have first shot his wife, and then gone to a second residence where the children were killed.

  Police said that Elkins was arrested in 2019 in a firearms case in which he pleaded guilty, but they were not aware of other issues of domestic violence in his past.

  US media reported that he served in the Louisiana Army National Guard for seven years, although he was never deployed, before leaving in 2020.

  Elkins had marital problems with his wife and was struggling with his mental health, the New York Times reported, citing family members.

  He told his stepfather, Marcus Jackson, that his wife wanted a divorce and that he was drowning in “dark thoughts,” the Times said.

  “This is a terrible event to occur. It’s especially important and distressing that the victims are all children,” Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux told reporters.

  “It lets you know that evil still exists in the world and that we need to be fighting everything we can to overcome that evil with good, to shed light in the darkness,” he said.

  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.

  ABC affiliate KTBS reported that the two women were shot in the head.

  Police said that one of the women who had been shot in the lower part of the face had raised the alarm with a neighbor who had made the 911 emergency call to alert authorities between 5am and 5:30am.

  One of Louisiana’s two US senators, Republican Bill Cassidy, called the incident an episode of “horrific violence.”

  Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said he was “heartbroken.”

  US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, who was born in Shreveport, denounced the incident on X as a “senseless tragedy.”
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