Shamar Elkins and his soon-to-be-wife, Shaneiqua Pugh, were sitting on a couch three years ago in Shreveport, La., as their daughters played outside.
Betty Walker — the woman who had raised Mr. Elkins as her son, though she was not his biological mother — was there, too, and could tell there was friction between the couple.
Ms. Pugh said that evening that she was considering leaving Mr. Elkins and taking her children with her, Ms. Walker recalled in an interview.
Mr. Elkins was furious, Ms. Walker said. He looked at Ms. Pugh and declared that if they tried to leave, “I’ll kill you, my kids and myself.”
“Don’t think like that,” Ms. Walker recalled telling him as she paused her cooking and peeped into the living room. Ms. Pugh tried to assure her that he was “just playing.”
“Well, don’t play like that,” Ms. Walker replied.
On Monday, she was replaying that scene in her mind, trying to grasp how Mr. Elkins could have grabbed an assault pistol early Sunday morning and, in the space of about 15 minutes, gone on a chilling rampage that officials said had left eight children dead, including seven of his own. Two women were also wounded, among them his wife.
Mr. Elkins, 31, was shot dead after a police chase. Ms. Pugh remained in critical condition on Monday, and her aunt said that she was still undergoing surgeries after being shot several times in the face and the stomach. The other injured woman had had a relationship with Mr. Elkins, the police said.
One child and one adult escaped the shootings by jumping off a roof, officials said.
Among the victims were three boys and five girls ranging in age from 3 to 11, officials said on Monday. They were identified by the coroner for Caddo Parish 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.
The killing of an entire family has stunned Shreveport, a small city in northwestern Louisiana. Pastors tried to console a community in disbelief and overwhelmed by despair. Residents left plushy animals and balloons near where the shootings took place. In a news conference on Monday, officials struggled to describe the magnitude of the violence.
“It will be written in the pages of history as one of the worst days” in Shreveport, said Chief Wayne Smith. Henry L. Whitehorn, the sheriff in Caddo Parish, described it as “the most heartbreaking tragedies that we have ever witnessed.”
Both the city and parish, Louisiana’s equivalent of a county, have seen a rise in domestic violence cases recently. Last week, the sheriff’s office opened a new domestic violence unit where victims could seek help and legal assistance. “I don’t believe any of us could have imagined that only days later, our community would be shaken,” Sheriff Whitehorn said.
The investigation remains ongoing, and officials did not attempt to explain why Mr. Elkins decided to kill the children. But Chief Smith said the shooting “erupted as a domestic dispute” and that domestic violence typically extends over a period of time.
In interviews with The New York Times, Mr. Elkins’s relatives, including his biological mother, Mahelia Elkins, and his stepfather, Marcus Jackson, said he had had mental health problems and had recently expressed suicidal thoughts.
In an interview on Monday, Ms. Walker offered a more detailed account of Mr. Elkins’s spiraling mental state.
In hindsight, the episode on the couch may have been a warning sign of the danger that Mr. Elkins posed to his family. But Ms. Walker said that she took his words at the time as hypermasculine hubris, uttered without much thought.
“I never thought — and nobody ever told me — that he would go through killing himself and killing these kids,” Ms. Walker said, her voice hoarse after spending a restless night in tears.
She said that in February, Mr. Elkins tried to take his own life. She visited him at a hospital, where he declined to discuss what had happened. His wife was by his bedside.
Afterward, Mr. Elkins, who had served in the Louisiana Army National Guard from August 2013 to August 2020, took medicine and partook in counseling at a nearby Veterans Affairs hospital.
Ms. Walker said she was not sure how often he went to counseling. She knew of no protective orders against him. She added that Mr. Elkins and Ms. Pugh had previously accused each other of infidelity, and that much of the tension in their relationship was tied to financial struggles.
On Easter this month, Mr. Elkins, who worked at UPS, told his mother and stepfather that his wife wanted a divorce, and that he was drowning in “dark thoughts” and suicidal. His stepfather tried to reassure him, but Mr. Elkins replied: “Some people don’t come back from their demons.”
Records show that Mr. Elkins had at least two prior convictions, including for driving while intoxicated in 2016 and for the illegal use of weapons in 2019.
In a police description of the March 2019 incident, an officer wrote that Mr. Elkins had pulled a 9-millimeter handgun out of his waistband and shot at a vehicle five times after the driver of the car had pulled a silver handgun on him. One of the bullets Mr. Elkins shot was found near a school where children were playing outside. Ms. Walker said the episode devolved after a man tried to take Mr. Elkins’ marijuana and run away with it, prompting him to fire gunshots.
Ms. Walker said her son had few friends.
Some neighbors of the family said they didn’t know anything was amiss.
Freddie Montgomery, 72, who lives across the street from where the shooting began, said the Elkins and Pugh family were new to the neighborhood. His brief interactions with them, he said, were normal: The children played in the yard, and he sometimes waved at Mr. Elkins.
“This totally caught everybody by surprise,” Mr. Montgomery said.
That shock was especially palpable in schools that the victims attended.
Keith Burton, superintendent of Caddo Parish Public Schools, said at the news conference that he saw a classmate of one of the victims, a kindergartner, walk silently down a hall, rest her head on a counselor’s shoulder and cry.
“It’s a reality in 2026 that school districts must be prepared for active shooters — it’s just a reality,” Mr. Burton said. “Unfortunately, we’re never prepared when one of those active shooters is a family member, and it happens outside at that child’s home.”
Don Little, president of the Caddo Parish School Board, said four of the children attended Linwood Public Charter School; two attended Summer Grove Elementary School; and two were not yet in school.
Ms. Walker described her grandchildren as “angels.” They would play at a nearby park. When they returned from their games, they would ask, “Grandma, what are you cooking?” They hoped it would be their favorites: soul food like beans and rice, fried chicken. Sometimes, tacos.
Her memories flicker between images of them, and of their father. She has spent hours weeping since Sunday, processing the devastation he had caused.
Some images were too painful to conjure, she said, like Mr. Elkins playing basketball with his daughters.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
Kitty Bennett, Georgia Gee and Kirsten Noyes contributed research. Billy Witz contributed reporting.
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