Brother-in-law of suspect Shamar Elkins speaks out

Man facing divorce kills 8 children, including 7 of his own, in shooting rampage

A Louisiana man killed 8 children, 7 of his own. His family said warning signs preceded the tragedy

 

Freddie Montgomery looked across the street as he walked home from visiting a neighbor and saw Shamar Elkins. The 31-year-old was sitting on the front porch of his Shreveport, Louisiana, home Saturday afternoon, Montgomery told CNN. The two men waved at each other as children played in the yard.

When Montgomery woke up and opened the curtains the next morning, he saw law enforcement entering the house across the street. And the police presence continued to grow.

He asked an officer if the scene was bad. The police said yes.

“Are we talking fatalities?” Montgomery asked. Multiple, the officer said.

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“Loss of children?” Montgomery asked. Multiple, the officer said.

In pictures: The Shreveport community mourns after a mass shooting

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Syrnerica Pugh is comforted while grieving the death of her nieces and nephews in Shreveport, Lousiana, on Sunday, April 19. A man shot eight children dead, seven of them his own, and injured several other people, according to local authorities. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Elkins fatally shot eight children — seven of them his own — early Sunday morning, Shreveport police said, in the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in more than two years. He also shot Shaneiqua Pugh, his wife, and Christina Snow, the mother of three of his children. A third woman — his wife’s sister — and a 12-year-old girl jumped off the roof trying to escape.

(Police previously said it was a 13-year-old boy who jumped off the roof trying to escape.)

The attack spanned multiple homes.

“This is a tragic situation, maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had in Shreveport,” Mayor Tom Arceneaux said in a Sunday news conference.

The youngest victim, Jayla Elkins, was just 3 years old, authorities said.

The other children killed are Shayla Elkins, 5; Kayla Pugh, 6; Layla Pugh, 7; Mar’Kaydon Pugh, 10; Sariahh Snow, 11; Khedarrion Snow, 6; and Braylon Snow, 5, according to the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office.

The eight children’s deaths more than double the number of homicides in Shreveport and Caddo Parish this year, according to the coroner’s office.

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SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA – APRIL 20: People pay homage at the entrance of a home on April 20, 2026 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Eight children were killed and two women were wounded during a domestic violence incident in the early morning hours of April 19th, according to local authorities. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

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Arceneaux described the scene in the city of just over 180,000 people as “horrific.” This kind of shooting “rattles the entire city,” the mayor told CNN.

Elkins shot Christina Snow, the mother of three of his children, in the face, her aunt LaShun Berry told CNN.

As the shooting unfolded, some of the children tried to escape out the back, a state representative said at a news conference Sunday.

Bullet holes could be seen in the back door of one of the homes on Monday.

Early morning quiet broken by gunfire

In the early morning hours Sunday, the quiet was broken by an unexpected sound: gunshots.

The first shooting occurred at Harrison Street, where Christina Snow lives, and later, another shooting occurred at West 79th Street, where Shaneiqua Pugh lives, Shreveport Cpl. Chris Bordelon told CNN.

The first 911 call came in just before 6 a.m.

Shreveport police received a call from someone on the roof of a house on West 79th Street, who said a suspect inside had just shot someone, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said at a news conference Monday.

A few minutes later, another call came in.

The caller told police the suspect was a family member, and dispatch was told nine people lived at the home, Smith said.

The suspect, the caller said, had shot everyone inside the home.

The caller told dispatch that she and her children had fled from the roof and were now in the backyard.

Police arrived on the scene at 6:01 a.m., Smith said.

Christina Snow, 31, Shreveport Shooting victim
From Christina Snow/Facebook

Minutes later, police received a third call about another shooting on Harrison Street. A woman said her boyfriend had shot her, taken her three children and fled the scene, Smith said. The caller identified the suspect as Elkins.

According to Berry, Christina Snow’s aunt, her niece lives a block away from Elkins and his wife.

“He went over, knocked on her door and he shot her,” she said. “She was able to have Siri call 911 for her.”

The photo shows Shamar Elkins, 31, and his wife, Shaneiqua. Elkins fatally shot his seven children and a cousin, and critically wounded his wife early Sunday, police said.
Shaneiqua Elkins/Facebook

Around 6:15 a.m., Elkins, who was armed, carjacked a vehicle and led authorities on a chase into neighboring Bossier Parish, police said. Elkins was using a rifle during the incident, Shreveport Police Cpl. Chris Bordelon said.

(Bordelon later said the rifle was a pistol modified with rifle caliber round.)

At 6:29 a.m., officers shot Elkins. He was pronounced dead at the scene just after 7 a.m., Smith said.

A firearm was recovered after police killed Elkins, according to court documents.

But police — spread out across at least three crime scenes — were now starting to piece together why Elkins, who was seen in a video on Facebook celebrating New Year’s Eve together with his wife, Christina Snow and some of their children, began his rampage.

‘Help me guard my mind and my emotions’

Elkins posted a photo on Facebook of himself smiling with his children over Easter. The seven kids, in pink-and-white striped sweaters and blue polos, stood on either side of him.

“Had a wonderful time at church for the first time with all my kids what a blessed day,” he wrote.

But four days after posting the Easter picture of his family, he reposted an inspirational prayer from another Facebook page that began, “Dear God, Today I ask You to help me guard my mind and my emotions.”

A photo posted to Facebook shows Elkins, 31, with his children on Easter, two weeks before the shooting. “Happy Easter had a wonderful time at church for the first time with all my kids what a blessed day,” he wrote.
Shamar Elkins/Facebook

The prayer also asks for strength to “reject” depression, anger, anxiety and panic.

He had previously struggled with mental health issues, multiple family members told CNN.

Now Elkins and his wife were in the process of divorcing. Pugh filed for a divorce for infidelity, Troy Brown, Elkins’ brother-in-law, said.

“It seemed like he was having a hard time,” Brown said.

The woman who raised Elkins, but was not his biological mother, told The New York Times he tried to take his own life in February.

Elkins, who was in the Louisiana Army National Guard as a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist, had recently stayed at the local VA hospital to get treatment for mental health issues, Brown’s cousin Crystal Brown-Page told CNN.

He came home “happy,” Brown said. “He loved his kids.”

Everything had felt like it was falling apart for Elkins, Brown said.

A photo shows Shamar Elkins, whom the Shreveport Police Department says is “the individual responsible for this heinous act” in which eight children were shot and killed.
Shreveport Police Department

“I would constantly talk to my brother-in-law. ‘Let’s sit outside. Let’s play dominoes. Let’s play cards. Let’s go for a walk,’” Brown said.

Brown asked if Elkins needed to go back to the hospital, but Elkins allegedly told him he was OK.

“I’m just gonna deal with it,” Brown recalled him saying.

“I wish he went ahead and got the help,” Brown said.

Elkins and Pugh were supposed to go to court Monday to sign the divorce papers, Brown-Page said. Pugh had considered leaving Elkins before they were married, The New York Times reported.

He had told Pugh, The New York Times reported, he would kill her, their kids and himself if she did.

Brown, Elkins’ brother-in-law, said his daughter, the 12-year-old who jumped from the roof, just had some scratches from Sunday’s attack. His wife, Pugh’s sister, fractured bones from falling off the roof. But his son died in the massacre.

“I’m never gonna get to throw the football with him again,” Brown said in tears.

“These were eight babies, precious babies, babies that I took care of, helped take care of, helped raise daily, on a daily basis,” Brown said. “I’ve lost eight parts of me, because I loved each and every of them like they were my own and I took care of them like they were my own.”

Mar’Kaydon Pugh died in Sunday’s mass shooting.
From Social Media

‘This is the result when someone snaps’

By Monday morning, a memorial filled with flowers, balloons and stuffed animals could be seen in front of the family’s home, where community members trickled in and out throughout the day.

Some prayed. Others cried. A local school bus attendant, who lives on the other side of town, stopped by the home early Monday morning with flowers and balloons to offer her condolences.

“We just wanted to come and do something. It might not be a whole lot, but it’s something,” she told CNN.

Love One Louisiana Foundation, which also supported families who were impacted in a New Year’s attack on Bourbon Street, will help pay for the funerals, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry announced, and the Community Foundation of North Louisiana will help support the family that survived, said CEO Kristi Gustavson.

Berry, Christina Snow’s aunt, said all eight funerals will be held together and the children will be buried near each other.

On Tuesday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana charged a Shreveport man with making a false statement about the weapon Elkins used in the killings. The man initially denied having the firearm but later admitted of storing it under the seat of his truck and that he had suspected Elkins of stealing it, according to the filing.

From left: Khedarrion Snow, 6, Braylon Snow, 5, and Sariahh Snow, 11, victims of the Shreveport shooting.
From Christina Snow/Facebook

City Councilmember Tabatha Taylor broke down in tears Sunday and asked people to make better use of resources to address mental health challenges.

“This is not a freaking joke! This is real, and this is the result when someone snaps,” said Taylor.

She told CNN’s Phil Mattingly domestic violence in her community is “staggering,” with 30% of homicides being related to domestic violence, adding that the growing group of women affected are African American.

Investigators will determine whether this was a case of family annihilation — a deliberate attempt to wipe out one’s family all at once — former FBI Deputy Director and CNN senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe said.

“I think the work to be done now is to go back and try to see those signs that were there for family members, for likely his spouse, for friends, for others,” McCabe said, “and work with the community on better understanding what steps to take when someone around you is spiraling into that sort of a depression.”

People attend a candlelight vigil after eight children were killed during a mass shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, early Sunday.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Montgomery, the neighbor who saw Elkins and the kids 12 hours before the shooting, said he saw the children every day playing in the street or the yard.

His first thought Sunday morning, he said, was about the children.

“You hope the children are all right,” Montgomery, himself a father, grandfather and great-grandfather, said. “But they were not.”

He hasn’t been able to come to grips with what happened.

“What type of father would do this to his children?” he asked.