Louisiana investigators probe how convicted shooter got gun, killed 10

The central question in the Shreveport killings is not motive alone, but access: how a 31-year-old man with a firearms conviction got the gun that left eight children dead and two women wounded in a domestic-violence attack that ripped through south Shreveport.

Police identified the suspect as Shamar Elkins and said federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were examining how he obtained the assault-style pistol used in the shooting. NBC News reported that Elkins had been arrested in 2019 and later convicted of illegal use of a firearm after firing multiple rounds near a school, making the weapon’s path to the attack central to the investigation. Federal charges against Charles Ford, 56, added another layer to that inquiry, as prosecutors said he was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and making a false statement to federal agents in connection with the gun.

The shooting began around 6 a.m. Sunday, April 19, and unfolded over about 68 minutes across multiple scenes, including the 300 block of West 79th Street and other nearby locations. Police and court officials have said investigators were probing five crime scenes tied to the attack. Elkins died after a shootout with police following what authorities described as a domestic incident, not a random rampage.

The dead were children ages 3 to 11. The Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office identified them as Jayla Elkins, 3; Shayla Elkins, 5; Kayla Pugh, 6; Layla Pugh, 7; Khedarrion Snow, 6; Braylon Snow, 5; Markaydon Pugh, 10; and Sariahh Snow, 11. Authorities said seven of the eight children were Elkins’ own children and the eighth was a cousin. One teenage boy escaped by jumping off a roof. The two wounded victims were women, including Elkins’ wife, and the violence appears to have followed a dispute after she recently asked for a divorce.

The case has intensified scrutiny of domestic-violence safeguards in Caddo Parish, where a new Domestic Violence Unit opened just days before the shooting, on April 13, with a mandate to provide crisis intervention, safety planning, legal assistance, advocacy and coordinated support services. The timing has sharpened questions about whether warning signs around the family were missed and whether existing systems were able to intervene before the attack.

Officials have also pointed to the broader public-safety stakes in Louisiana law. State statute RS 14:95.10 bars people convicted of domestic abuse battery and certain related offenses from possessing firearms or concealed weapons, yet Elkins had already been convicted of illegal use of a firearm. The investigation now stretches beyond one man’s violence to the chain that armed him, and to the enforcement breakdowns that allowed a prohibited buyer to get a gun in the first place.