This Sunday, Louisiana authorities identified the perpetrator of the deadliest shooting in the United States since 2024, which killed eight minors, and who, according to authorities, was the father of seven of the victims.
The event took place early this Sunday in Shreveport, an inland city of almost 200,000 inhabitants, and ended with the shooter dead during an exchange of gunfire with the Police after a chase that ended in the neighboring town.
The aggressor was identified as Shamar Elkins, the father of seven of the eight deceased minors, as confirmed by local police to several US media.
Mental problems and history
Shamar Elkins was a former soldier with mental problems and a history. Elkins served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020. In his military career he did not rise above the rank of private and was never deployed.
According to the ‘ABC’ newspaper, in 2019 he was arrested after shooting at a car after the driver pointed another gun at him and fled. In 2016 he was also arrested, but on that occasion, for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Ten days before the shooting, Elkins had posted a message on Facebook asking God to help him guard his mind and emotions: “Dear God, today I ask you to help me guard my mind and emotions. When negativity comes upon me, remind me to say: This does not belong to me, in the name of Jesus.”
His wife’s request for divorce, a possible trigger for his homicidal outbreak
One of those injured in the shooting is Shaneiqua Pugh, Elkins’ wife, to whom he had been married for two years. According to Elkins’ family members, Elkins had mental health problems and had recently expressed suicidal thoughts. In addition, they assured that her request for divorce plunged him into “dark thoughts.”
Police initially described it as “a domestic altercation.”
This is the deadliest shooting in the United States since 2024, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit organization that compiles data on all incidents of gun violence in the country.
