By Leah Douglas and Jeffrey Dastin
April 19 (Reuters) – A gunman killed seven of his children and an eighth minor in a domestic violence incident on Sunday in Shreveport, Louisiana, before police fatally shot him during a vehicle chase, authorities said.
Seven bodies were found inside the house where the shooting occurred, while the eighth youth died attempting a rooftop escape, Shreveport Police Department spokesperson Christopher Bordelon told TV station KTBS. One crime scene was “incredibly gruesome”, Bordelon told KTBS.
Preliminary information indicated the suspect first shot a woman and then went to a nearby home where he killed the children, according to a Facebook post from the Shreveport police. The children’s ages ranged from about 1 to 14, police said.
Two women were being treated at a hospital for serious injuries, the post said.
The suspect and one woman who was shot were the parents of seven of the children, Bordelon told TV station KSLA. One woman sustained life-threatening injuries, and multiple families were affected, he told KSLA. The shooting started after 6 a.m. (1100 GMT) on Sunday, he told reporters.
Police identified the suspect as Shamar Elkins, according to Leigh Anne Evensky, director of communications for the Shreveport mayor’s office.
The suspect carjacked a vehicle after the shootings and was killed when police fired at the vehicle during a chase that went into neighboring Bossier Parish, Bordelon said. Louisiana State Police are investigating the shooting of the suspect, spokesperson Kate Stegall said.
“This is a tragic situation, maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had,” Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux said.
A comprehensive domestic violence center is being established by the Caddo Parish sheriff, which the mayor’s office is working to support, Arceneaux later told Reuters.
SHOOTER’S MOTIVE UNCLEAR
At a news conference, Louisiana state Senator Sam Jenkins, whose district includes much of Shreveport, said the shooting underscores the need for more resources to combat domestic violence.
“If we have someone with a history of domestic violence, let’s make sure that those resources, that intervention is there on a continuous and consistent basis, hopefully to avoid what we’ve seen here today,” Jenkins said.
Reuters was unable to immediately determine whether Elkins had such a history. Police were working to determine the motive, Bordelon told KSLA.
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Shreveport native, on social media called the shooting a “heartbreaking tragedy.” Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said on social media that he and his wife were “praying for everyone affected.”
Not including Sunday’s incident in Shreveport, the Gun Violence Archive lists at least 119 mass shootings in the United States this year, resulting in 117 deaths, including 79 children, and 458 people injured.
The archive defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed by gunfire. The United States had 407 mass shootings last year, according to archive data.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas, David Ljunggren, Tim McLaughlin and Jeffrey Dastin; Editing by Will Dunham, Sergio Non and Stephen Coates)
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