Eight children were shot dead in Louisiana, in the southern United States, in domestic violence incidents whose presumed author was shot dead by the police, authorities announced on Sunday, April 20. This massacre, the worst in the United States in more than two years, took place in Shreveport, a major city in the northwest of the state of Louisiana.
Police officers responded on Sunday to reports of violence and found victims in two separate homes, said police corporal Chris Bordelon at a press conference, adding that a third location is also part of the investigation. “Three boys and five girls aged 3 to 11 were killed,” the coroner’s office said. Seven of them were siblings and the eighth was a cousin.
According to Corporal Bordelon, a total of ten people were shot, “eight of whom were found dead.” Seven of the eight minors killed were the children of the presumed author, he added.
The two other people, severely injured by the gunfire, are women, at least one of whom was the mother of several of the children killed, the police said, who are actively investigating to determine the motives behind the crimes. The police reported that one of the women, who was shot in the lower face, alerted a neighbor who then called for help.
Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux said on CNN that the two women were relatives of the suspect, without providing further details. In total, nine children were in the second residence where the shooter went. One of them survived and was hospitalized for a non-life-threatening injury, Tom Arceneaux told the press.
The police identified the shooter as Shamar Elkins, 31 years old. After fleeing in a stolen vehicle, the suspect was pursued and then shot by law enforcement. “At the end of this chase, the suspect got out of the vehicle with a weapon, and our officers were forced to neutralize him,” Chris Bordelon explained to the press. No officers were injured.
Context: A devastating incident involving the shooting death of eight children and the suspect in Louisiana.
Fact Check: Gun Violence Archive data confirms this incident as the deadliest shooting in the United States since January 2024.
