Thirty-one-year-old Shamar Elkins, a former Army man, who killed eight children, including seven of his own, was visited by troubled thoughts of late because of his disturbed marital relationship with his wife. Elkins called his mother, Maheila Elkins, on Easter Sunday and told her that he wanted to take his own life and that he was drowning in "dark thoughts", New York Times reported. “I told him, ‘You can beat stuff, man. I don’t care what you’re going through, you can beat it,’” his step-father Marcus Jackson said. “Then I remember him telling me: ‘Some people don’t come back from their demons.’”
Eight children were killed and two other people were gravely wounded in a shooting spree which is being called the worst tragedy in Lousiana. It unfolded in at least three locations in Shreveport, and ended with Elkins being shot dead after a police chase on Sunday morning, the authorities said. Elkins was struggling with mental health problems. The Shreveport Police Department said the children ranged from age 1 to 14 and seven of the eight were Elkins's. All of them were killed in an execution style. Elkins' wife Shaneiqua Pugh was also shot at as she was there. She was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
After the shootings, Elkins took a car by force, and police officers pursued him. The officers opened fire and Elkins died. But it is not clear if officers killed Elkins or if he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Elkins was married in 2024. His mother told NYT she was not aware what problems her son was having with his wife. The Army said in a statement that Elkins served in the Louisiana Army National Guard from August 2013 to August 2020 as a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist. He had no deployment and left the Army as a private.
Elkins's mother said she gave birth to him when she was a teenager and was struggling with a crack cocaine addiction, so she left him to be raised by a family friend, Betty Walker. She reconnected with her son more than a decade ago but never became close.
Elkins had at least two prior convictions, including for driving while intoxicated in 2016 and for the illegal use of weapons in 2019.
