Neighbors Describe Terrifying Shreveport Mass Shooting That Killed Eight Children

Gunfire ripped through a south Shreveport neighborhood before dawn Sunday, leaving eight children dead, two women wounded and neighbors staring at a scene they said felt unreal. Police identified the suspected gunman as 31-year-old Shamar Elkins of Shreveport and said the violence began as a domestic disturbance involving two homes. Authorities said 10 people were shot in all, and seven of the children killed were Elkins’ own. The children ranged in age from 3 to 11.

What neighbors heard and saw underscored how quickly the domestic crisis turned into a mass-casualty event. Jacob Castleman and Tiffany Castleman told KSLA they first heard sirens, then a burst of gunfire outside their home. Tiffany Castleman said she realized it was a “full-blown shootout.” Jacob Castleman said he could not believe the shooting happened behind their house and described officers with guns drawn ordering the suspect to surrender. Another neighbor, Liza Demming, said her security camera captured Elkins running away and recorded two shots. She later saw a child’s covered body on the roof of the residence.

Fred Montgomery, who lived across the street, said he had seen the children playing in the yard and had waved to Elkins the night before the killings. That detail made the violence feel even more sudden to neighbors who knew the family by sight, if not by what was happening behind closed doors. A local daycare owner who knew the family said Elkins seemed “dead behind the eyes.”

Police said Elkins fled in a stolen or carjacked vehicle and led officers on a pursuit into Bossier City, where he was killed when police opened fire. The sequence left a trail of trauma across two cities and highlighted how domestic violence incidents can escalate into fast-moving, multi-scene shootings that put children, neighbors and first responders in immediate danger.

The killings have been described by police and media as one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States in more than two years. For Shreveport, the scale of the loss has turned a family tragedy into a broader reckoning over domestic violence, access to firearms and the warning signs that too often go unaddressed before children become the victims of a preventable catastrophe.