Tragic Mass Shooting in Shreveport Claims Lives of Eight Children

Mon Apr 20 2026 17:47:24 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

In an unprecedented act of violence, a man killed eight children in Shreveport, Louisiana, including seven of his own, marking the deadliest shooting in over two years in the United States.

Early Sunday morning, in Shreveport, Louisiana, a man identified as Shamar Elkins shot and killed eight children and injured two women in a shocking domestic violence incident. Community members mourned the loss, with vigils held in the neighborhood. The tragedy has left local officials and residents in shock, as details of the unfolding events reveal a tumultuous family situation leading up to the violence.

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A man killed eight children, including seven of his own, and shot two women in an attack in a Shreveport, Louisiana, neighborhood that was the nation’s deadliest shooting in more than two years, authorities said.

At a news conference outside the residence where one of the shootings occurred early Sunday, officials appeared stunned, requesting patience and prayers from the community.

“This is a tragic situation — maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had,” said Tom Arceneaux, mayor of the city in northwestern Louisiana.

Mourners laid flowers outside the single-story house on 79th Street, and people lit candles for the victims at an evening prayer vigil in a nearby parking lot.

“It just makes you take your children and hug them and hold them and tell them how much you love them,” said Kimberlin Jackson, who was at the vigil.

The violence started before sunrise Sunday

Police said the man shot a woman at one home in the neighborhood south of downtown then drove to the second location.

Seven children were killed inside the second house, and one was found dead on the roof after apparently trying to escape, police spokesperson Chris Bordelon said. Another child jumped off the roof and was expected to survive after being taken to a hospital.

The children who were killed were between the ages of 3 and 11 years old, three boys and five girls, according to the Caddo Parish Coroner’s office. All the children were “happy kids, very friendly, very sweet,” said Crystal Brown, who is a cousin of one of the women who were shot.

“I just don’t know what to say, my heart is just taken aback,” Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said.

The gunman, identified as 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, died after a police pursuit that ended with officers firing on him, according to Bordelon. Authorities did not say what may have set off the violence but Bordelon said detectives were confident the shooting was “entirely a domestic incident.”

Elkins had been arrested in a 2019 firearms case, but Bordelon said officials were not aware of any other domestic violence issues. He had four children with his wife and three children with another woman who lived close by and was also shot, according to Brown.

The shooting in Shreveport, a city of about 180,000 residents, was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb.