Shreveport gunman identified after killing eight children in domestic attack

Police identified 31-year-old Shamar Elkins as the gunman after eight children were killed in Shreveport’s Cedar Grove neighborhood, a domestic attack that became the deadliest mass shooting in the United States in more than two years. Seven of the children were believed to be Elkins’ own, and two adult women were also critically wounded.

Investigators said the violence spread across multiple locations, including two homes, and began before sunrise. The scene was large enough that officers were still sorting through its pieces as details emerged. Early reports put the number of people shot at 10 or 11, depending on the update, and the victims were first described as ranging from about 1 or 3 years old to 11 or 14 years old before the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office released the children’s names.

Authorities described the attack as domestic-related and said they were still working to determine the motive. One of the wounded women was the mother of some of the children. A second adult woman was also shot and critically wounded, and some early accounts identified her as a girlfriend. That relationship pattern made the case even more devastating: this was not random street violence, but a family breakdown that turned a neighborhood into a crime scene.

After the shooting, police said Elkins carjacked a vehicle and fled. Officers chased him into Bossier City, where he was later shot and killed by law enforcement. That ended the manhunt, but not the questions. What happened inside those Cedar Grove homes before the shooting started, and what set off the bloodshed, remained under investigation.

The reaction was immediate. Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux and the Shreveport City Council issued statements, while Gov. Jeff Landry and Louisiana Department of Health Secretary Bruce Greenstein urged residents to focus on emotional support and check in on one another. State officials also pointed people to Louisiana 988 for confidential crisis help.

The broader context is grim. One local report cited Louisiana’s gun violence death rate at 22.9 per 100,000 residents, the sixth highest in the country. And for all the local shock, the scale of the attack pushed it into national history: it was widely reported as the deadliest U.S. mass shooting since eight people were killed in Joliet, Illinois, in January 2024.