Shamar Elkins: Army Vet Kills 8 Children, 7 of His Own, in Shreveport Massacre While Most Slept
A 31 year old Army veteran named Shamar Elkins shot and killed 8 children early Sunday morning in Shreveport, Louisiana, in what CNN is calling the deadliest mass shooting in the United States in more than two years. Seven of those children were his own.
Most of them were asleep when he pulled the trigger.
The youngest was 1 year old. The oldest was 12.
What Happened
Shortly after 6 a.m. Central Time on Sunday, April 19, 2026, Elkins opened fire across three separate homes in Shreveport’s Cedar Grove neighborhood. Police confirmed 10 people were struck by gunfire in what they are calling a domestic incident.
Here is the sequence based on what police have released so far.
Elkins first went to a home on Harrison Street, where his wife, the mother of his children, was shot. Police say her injuries are very serious. She has been in surgery and is expected to survive.
He then drove a quarter of a mile away to a second residence on West 79th Street, near Linwood Avenue. That is where he killed the children. Seven were his own kids. The eighth was a cousin. A second woman at that home, reportedly the mother of the cousin, was also shot. Her injuries are described as life threatening.
One child survived by jumping off the roof. A 13 year old boy made it out the back, climbed to the top of the house, and leapt. He has broken bones but he is alive. Right now he is the only witness.
After the shooting, Elkins carjacked a vehicle at gunpoint and fled. Shreveport police chased him into Bossier City in the neighboring parish. Officers and Elkins exchanged gunfire in the 400 block of Brompton Lane. Elkins was killed. Louisiana State Police are investigating the officer involved shooting because it crossed jurisdictions.
Shreveport Police Corporal Chris Bordelon called the crime scene “extensive” and said it was “unlike anything most of us have ever seen.”
Who Was Shamar Elkins
Elkins, 31, served in the Louisiana Army National Guard for seven years until August 2020. He was never deployed.
He was arrested in 2019 on a firearms case. Police have not released details about the charge or how it was resolved, but the fact that he had access to weapons Sunday morning is going to become one of the central questions in this investigation.
His social media paints a disturbing picture of the days leading up to the attack.
On April 9, ten days before the shooting, Elkins posted a prayer on Facebook. “Dear God, today I ask You to help me guard my mind and my emotions.” In a separate post he wrote: “When depression tries to settle in, when anger rises, when anxiety or panic comes, give me the awareness to recognize what is not from You and the strength to reject it immediately in the name of JESUS.”
Two weeks before the murders, he posted a photo of himself with seven of his children, talking about taking them to Easter service.
The day before the shooting, he posted a picture of his eldest daughter eating a burger. The caption read: “Lol!!!! Took my oldest on a lil 1 on 1 date had to catch her down bad ugh ugh.” He added laughing emojis.
She was one of the children he killed the next morning.
The Children
The Caddo Parish Coroner’s office has identified the eight children killed. Seven were siblings, all fathered by Elkins. One was a cousin. Three were boys. Five were girls. They ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old according to the coroner, with earlier police reports placing the range from 1 to 14.
These are the eighth through fifteenth homicides recorded in Shreveport this year.
The Questions That Matter
How did a man with a 2019 firearms arrest have access to guns. This is the first question every investigation will circle back to. Louisiana has some of the most permissive gun laws in the country, but a prior firearms case should have triggered something. It did not.
What happened to him after he left the National Guard. Seven years of service, never deployed, discharged in August 2020. Then a firearms arrest in 2019 (while still serving). Then five years of something we don’t fully know yet. His own words in early April tell us depression, anger, anxiety, and panic were already closing in. The Department of Veterans Affairs has been under fire for years for failing to deliver adequate mental health support to Black veterans specifically. That story is about to get another chapter.
Why domestic violence keeps killing Black children in this country. Shreveport City Councilman Grayson Boucher said more than 30% of murders in Shreveport are domestic in nature. That is not a local problem. Nationally, children are most likely to be killed by a parent or caregiver, and Black children die in domestic violence incidents at higher rates than any other group. The guns make it final. The mental health system fails before anyone ever picks one up.
Where was the intervention. The Facebook posts were public. The depression was documented. The prior firearms charge existed. Somewhere in the chain between his April 9 prayer and his April 19 massacre, this man’s family, his community, and the systems that are supposed to catch people in crisis all missed him.
The Community Response
Governor Jeff Landry released a statement saying he and his wife are heartbroken. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was born in Shreveport, offered condolences. Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux told reporters at the scene, “This affects the entire community. We all mourn with these families.”
Councilwoman Tabatha Taylor was photographed hugging family members outside the scene. Prayer vigils began Sunday evening. Neighbors have been leaving flowers and stuffed animals at the doors of the two homes.
State Representative Tammy Phelps confirmed that some of the children tried to escape out the back door when the shooting started. Most did not make it.
Shreveport is a city of about 180,000 people. It has now recorded its deadliest domestic shooting in modern memory, and the deadliest mass shooting in the entire country since January 2024.
This Is Not Just a Shreveport Story
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been at least 114 mass shootings in the United States so far in 2026. A mass shooting is defined as four or more people shot, not counting the shooter. We are not even at the end of April.
Eight children are dead in a city that was quiet 24 hours ago. One little boy is in the hospital with broken bones because jumping off a roof was the safest option his brain could process in the middle of a massacre. A mother is in recovery after being shot in the face by the father of her children. Another mother is fighting for her life after watching her child get murdered.
And the man who did it posted a prayer about guarding his mind and his emotions ten days before he decided eight kids did not deserve to wake up on Sunday morning.
