Shreveport, La. – Investigators are looking into how a former National Guardsman identified as the gunman who killed eight children in Louisiana on Sunday got a gun – despite an illegal firearms conviction on his record.
Elkins had recently sought mental health treatment from the local Veteran Affairs medical center, staying for a week and a half, according to his brother-in-law, Troy Brown. Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is probing how the man obtained the assault-style pistol used in the shooting, which he described as a domestic violence incident. The ATF declined to comment. Shamar Elkins was arrested in 2019 and convicted of illegal use of a firearm. Shreveport Police spokesman Christopher Bordelon said Elkins was likely prohibited from legally owning firearms because of that conviction. In an interview, Bordelon said Elkins shot most of the children in the head and “probably still in their sleep.” Elkins was the father of seven of the eight children who were killed, Bordelon said; one of the children was a cousin, according to the coroner’s office. “It is a disgusting and evil scene,” Bordelon told NBC News. Elkins also shot and seriously injured his wife and another woman believed to be his girlfriend, police said. He fled the scene and died in front of a home nearby, authorities said. It was not known whether he was fatally shot by law enforcement officers or died by suicide, Smith told reporters at a news conference Monday. Smith declined to provide specifics about the investigation but confirmed that Elkins’ name was in the police department’s “system” prior to the weekend massacre. “All evidence and indications are that this erupted as a domestic dispute between parties that led” to the shooting, Smith said. The mass shooting, one of the worst in the U.S. in recent years, sent waves of shock and grief through Shreveport. Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux described it as “maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had” in the city. In an emotional news conference Monday, city and state officials condemned the bloodshed and called on community members to advocate for victims of domestic violence. “We cannot afford to treat domestic violence as an afterthought. We must ensure that every victim, every mother, every father, every child has access to safety,” Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry L. Whitehorn Sr. said.
The Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office, citing information provided by the children’s mothers, identified the victims as Jayla Elkins, 3, Shayla Elkins, 5, Kayla Pugh, 6, Layla Pugh, 7, Markaydon Pugh, 10, Sariahh Snow, 11, Khedarrion Snow, 6, and Braylon Snow, 5. Elkins served in the Louisiana Army National Guard as a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist from August 2013 to August 2020, the Army said. He never deployed and left the National Guard as a private. Shreveport police officers responded to the 300 block of West 79th Street just after 6 a.m. after reports of a domestic disturbance, authorities told reporters. Elkins first shot a woman on nearby Harrison Street before he went to the West 79th Street home, where he killed the children, authorities said. He then fled and carjacked a person at gunpoint near the intersection of Linwood Avenue and West 79th Street. Police officers exchanged gunfire with Elkins in neighboring Bossier Parish after a pursuit, Smith told reporters Monday. Police initially said that officers fatally shot Elkins at that scene, but Smith said Monday that Elkins’ cause of death was still under investigation. In September 2017, a judge granted Elkins and Sariahh’s mother joint custody following a petition to determine paternity and establish child support, according to court records reviewed by NBC News. Shreveport residents were left trying to make sense of the killings. The photo at the top of Elkin’s Facebook profile, which has been verified by NBC News, shows him posing with eight children, including a baby seated on his lap. On April 9, Elkins reposted a poem addressed to God. “Today I ask You to help me guard my mind and my emotions,” it reads in part. “When negativity arises, remind me to say, ‘It does not belong to me, in the name of Jesus.’” Ryan Chandler reported from Shreveport, and Daniel Arkin from New York. If you or someone you know is facing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence hotline for help at (800) 799-SAFE (7233), or go to www.thehotline.org for more. States often have domestic violence hotlines as well.
