Police said the suspect, later identified as Shamar Elkins, died after a chase that ended with officers firing on him in neighboring Bossier Parish.
SHREVEPORT, La. — Eight children were killed and two women were seriously wounded early Sunday in a domestic violence shooting that moved across two homes in Shreveport, police said, leaving one of Louisiana’s largest cities reeling from a crime officials called among the worst in its history.
The killings quickly became more than a local homicide case. Police said the suspect was the father of seven of the dead children, and the violence ended only after he fled, carjacked a vehicle and was shot by officers during a pursuit. By Monday, investigators were still working through evidence from multiple scenes, while city leaders and grieving relatives tried to account for how a family dispute turned into a mass killing of children.
Authorities said the violence began before sunrise Sunday in the Cedar Grove area of Shreveport. Police said a woman was first shot at a home on Harrison Street. The gunman then went to a second house on West 79th Street near Linwood Avenue, where the children and another woman were shot. Police Chief Wayne Smith told reporters he could not begin to explain how such an event could happen. Officers found multiple victims at the second house, and police spokesperson Chris Bordelon said one child died on the roof after trying to escape. Another child, a 13-year-old boy, survived after jumping from the roof and suffering broken bones. The suspect fled the area, police said, and the case expanded from a domestic shooting to a multi-scene emergency stretching into the neighboring parish.
By later Sunday, the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office had identified the children as Jayla Elkins, 3; Shayla Elkins, 5; Kayla Pugh, 6; Khedarrion Snow, 6; Layla Pugh, 7; Braylon Snow, 5; Markaydon Pugh, 10; and Sariahh Snow, 11. Officials said there were three boys and five girls. Police said seven of the eight were the suspect’s children and the eighth was a relative. Two women remained hospitalized with serious injuries. One was identified by relatives as Shaneiqua Elkins, the suspect’s wife and the mother of some of the children. Family members said she had surgery after being shot in the face and was expected to survive. Police said a third woman also escaped. Investigators have not publicly described a clear motive, and Bordelon said officers were still trying to determine what drove the attack.
The crime shook a city of about 180,000 residents in northwest Louisiana and sent mourners to the block where most of the victims were found. Neighbors described hearing shots and then seeing police flood the street. Liza Demming, who lives near the house, said her security camera captured the sound of gunfire and the suspect running away. Later, she said, she saw the covered body of a child on the roof. By Sunday evening, flowers and candles had been placed outside the single-story home on 79th Street and at a nearby shopping plaza. Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux called it “maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had.” The victims’ deaths also marked the eighth through 15th homicides in Shreveport this year, according to local reporting based on coroner records.
The case now sits at two levels of investigation. Shreveport police are handling the killings and the shootings at the homes, while Louisiana State Police are investigating the officer-involved shooting that ended the chase in Bossier Parish. Police said the suspect carjacked a vehicle after the attack and was killed when officers fired during the pursuit. The department has not yet released a detailed timeline of the chase, the number of officers who fired, or what happened in the final moments before the suspect died. Relatives told reporters that the suspect and his wife had been separating and were due in court Monday. Court records cited by The Associated Press showed he had pleaded guilty in 2019 to illegal use of weapons and received probation. Police said they were not aware of recent domestic violence arrests involving him.
The city’s public response shifted Monday from emergency briefings to mourning. Councilman James Green scheduled a news conference at Government Plaza, and city officials said they were organizing a community prayer vigil. State and local leaders issued statements of grief, and residents at a Sunday vigil struggled to describe the scale of the loss. “It just makes you take your children and hug them and hold them,” mourner Kimberlin Jackson said. Relatives used even starker words. Crystal Brown, a cousin of one of the wounded women, said the couple had argued over their separation before the shooting. Lionel Pugh, an uncle of Shaneiqua Elkins, said the children were “the center of her universe.” Their comments added human detail to a case that, for investigators, remains a set of crime scenes, witness statements and unanswered questions spread across two houses and one fatal pursuit.
The investigation remained active Monday, with police still working to establish motive, complete victim and suspect documentation, and prepare for the next public briefing as Shreveport continued to mourn the eight children killed on April 19.
Author note: Last updated April 20, 2026.