Louisiana man charged in deadly Shreveport shooting gun investigation

Federal prosecutors charged a Shreveport man, Charles Ford, 56, with being a felon in possession of a firearm and making a false statement to federal agents as investigators worked to reconstruct how the weapon used in a mass shooting moved from one person to another before eight children were killed.

Authorities said the gun was a Mossberg pistol, model 715P, .22 caliber, and that Ford initially denied having it because of his status as a convicted felon. Investigators later said he admitted a woman had given him the gun about a year earlier while she was in the hospital and that he kept it under the seat of his truck. Ford allegedly told agents the weapon disappeared last month and said he suspected Shamar Elkins took it because Elkins was one of the few people he had ever given a ride.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Shreveport Police Department began tracing the gun after the weekend attack. Prosecutors said the false statement charge is part of that effort to map the weapon’s path, from its transfer to Ford, to its disappearance, to the deadly shooting that followed. Elkins, police said, used the gun in the massacre before fleeing the scene, leading officers on a chase and then dying after being shot by police.

The shooting unfolded before dawn Sunday, April 19, 2026, across two houses in Shreveport and stretched across at least five crime scenes over 68 minutes. Eight children were killed, two women were wounded, and a teenage boy survived after jumping off a roof during the attack. The children were between 3 and 11 years old. Police said the dead included seven children fathered by Elkins and a cousin.

Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said April 19 would be remembered as “one of the worst days” in the city’s history. Officials said domestic violence was believed to be the primary motive, and investigators were still working to sort out the full sequence of events, including how the firearm changed hands before the killings.

Ford made his initial appearance before a judge Tuesday and was being held pending a detention hearing set for Friday at 10:30 a.m. in Shreveport. Prosecutors said he faces up to 15 years on the firearm charge and up to five years on the false-statement charge. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the Love One Louisiana Foundation, a nonprofit founded by his wife, Sharon Landry, would cover funeral expenses for the children as the case moved from the crime scene into the harder work of tracing the gun’s path and the accountability that follows.