SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A stunned Louisiana city struggled to come to grips Monday with the massacre of eight children carried out by a father who was separating from his wife and used an assault-style weapon despite a 2019 felony firearms conviction.
The violence reverberated across Shreveport a day after one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings in recent years. Schools brought in counselors for the victims' young classmates and neighbors grieved at a growing memorial. Community leaders called for a city-wide reckoning about how to stop domestic violence.
“We can not afford to wait until the next crisis,” said Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn. “This is the responsibility of all of us. We owe it to the eight children who were lost.”
The shooter, identified as Shamar Elkins, killed seven of his children and another child, police said. His wife also was shot and wounded.
His wife's sister, who called police minutes after the shooting started, escaped with a child by jumping from the roof, police and family members said Monday.
“She said she was running for her life,” said Lionel Pugh, an uncle of the two women shot. “The only ones he didn’t kill was the ones who got away.”
Elkins died after fleeing and a police pursuit that ended with officers firing on him. It was not clear whether he was killed by officers or from a self-inflicted gunshot, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said.
Officials said the children who died — three boys and five girls — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old.
Elkins and his wife, identified by family members as Shaneiqua Elkins, were separating and had been due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of a woman shot in the attack. She said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.
Family members described Shaneiqua Elkins as a doting mother, who celebrated her children’s success in school and carefully dressed them before family events.
Source: WPLG
