Shreveport mourns children shot dead in domestic violence incident
Shreveport residents gathered Monday (April 20) to remember the eight children shot and killed in a domestic violence dispute on Sunday (April 19). “All we can do now is raise awareness of domestic violence, stop it at its roots, and make sure people are aware of all the resources surrounding domestic violence,” Shreveport City Councilman Alan Jackson said.
SHREVEPORT, La. — Pastor James Green was preaching at First Union Missionary Baptist Church in Shreveport when he learned the unthinkable had happened.
That morning, a National Guard veteran shot and killed two women, as well as seven children and one of their cousins. The perpetrator died after being chased by police.
All of this happened on April 19, not far from Green Church in Shreveport, a town of about 180,000 people near the Texas border in northwest Louisiana.
“It was worse than being kicked in the gut,” said Green, who also serves on the Shreveport City Council. “It was like the wind had been taken away from me.”
As his community dealt with the aftermath of the shooting, Greene spearheaded a domestic violence summit and hosted a community vigil. He argued that the country “needs to focus on domestic violence, because it happens every minute, every hour of our lives.”
But amid deep political divisions at home and wars in Iran and Ukraine, some Americans, already reeling from traumatic news, may choose to look the other way to protect their own mental health.
“We’ve been talking for years in psychology about the need for a healthy level of self-care, not just for mass shootings, but for other traumatic events that occur over and over again,” said April Alexander, director of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Violence Prevention Center.
At the same time, Alexander said domestic violence should not be ignored.
“I hope people don’t become numb or immune to this disease,” she said. “We all need to invest in really investigating the underlying factors behind these incidents in order to come up with solutions.”
Shreveport shooting shocking but ‘not an outlier’
Police identified the shooter as Shamar Elkins, 31, who served in the Louisiana Army National Guard as a signal systems specialist and fire support specialist from 2013 to 2020.
The New York Times reported that before the shooting, on Easter Sunday, he told his stepfather that he wanted to take his own life and was plagued by “dark thoughts.” At the time, he was reportedly struggling with an impending separation from his wife, who was seriously injured in a shooting. Another victim had previously sued him for child support and was awarded joint custody of their child, Thalia, in 2017, according to court records.
Sarria was among those killed in the shooting. The other victims were identified as: Jayla Elkins, 3 years old; Sheila Elkins, 5 years old. Kayla Pugh, 6 years old. Layla Pugh, 7 years old. Markedon Pugh, 10 years old. Kedarion Snow, 6 years old. and Braylon Snow, 5.
Their deaths are part of a particularly horrifying phenomenon called “family annihilation,” which kills many relatives, sometimes entire families. An investigation by the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network, found that from 2020 to 2023, such homicides occurred on average once every five days across the United States. Several high-profile cases have garnered national attention, including those involving Alex Murdaugh, Andrea Yates, and Elizabeth Diane Downs.
The Shreveport attack was one of the deadliest mass shootings since January 2024. In some ways, “it wasn’t an outlier,” said Walter Dekeseredi, a sociology professor and director of the Center for the Study of Violence at West Virginia University.
“Good criminological research shows that it is typically men who kill their wives or ex-wives and their children,” he said. “This is the most common form of mass murder.”
Although Elkins’ motives are not entirely clear, Dekeseredi said leaving an abusive relationship can be the most dangerous time for an abusive partner. Black women are murdered by their intimate partners at significantly higher rates than any other group.
The Shreveport shooting left some wondering what kind of support families lacked.
“What was the situation like at this point where someone escalated and acquired a firearm and then again the women were left unprotected?” Alexander asked.
Raising awareness is important, but news can do great damage
Meanwhile, a 2025 report from the Reuters Institute for Journalism and the University of Oxford found that more people around the world are turning away from the news, sometimes because they perceive it to be negative and depressing.
People who follow news about violence and mass tragedies are more likely to experience distress, said E. Alison Holman, a professor in the School of Nursing and Psychological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.
For example, Professor Holman found that those who observed the most news media coverage of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings reported higher acute stress than those directly exposed to the bombings. This stress could be exacerbated, she said, as Americans are bombarded with a barrage of difficult news, including the rising death toll from the Iran war and the U.S. cost-of-living crisis.
“We call it cascading collective stress or trauma,” Holman said.
People who can empathize with victims are more likely to follow news about them, which can set off a cycle of distress.
“It’s very important for people to know what’s going on in the world around them, but don’t get too absorbed in it,” she said. “Don’t keep going back and watching. That’s not good for your mental health, and it’s not good for your physical health.”
Dekeseredi and Alexander said news coverage of the Shreveport shooting can be traumatic for viewers, especially those affected by domestic violence. But they also said it was important for people to understand the broader social forces that fuel such violence.
“This says something about the way our society works because the incidence of violence against women is very high in this country,” Dekeseredi said.
“Why not lift up Shreveport?”
On April 26, the choir at Shreveport’s Green Church performed “Praise Your Name” before parishioners lined up inside the sanctuary with umbrellas in hand. Eventually they approached the altar and raised their hands.
“Would you like to lift Shreveport?” Green asked his flock. “Why don’t you lift up your neighborhood? Why don’t you lift up the Elkins family, the Snow family, the Pugh family? Why don’t you lift up your family and other families in the Lord?”
He quotes Psalm 13, encouraging people to trust in God even in their sorrows.
“No matter where you are in life, once you have an audience with the Lord, once you come into His presence, He will take away your burdens,” Green said.
His parishioners immediately burst into applause. Their hope was clear as they embraced. Before leaving, they were presented with amaryllis plants, which feature red trumpet-shaped flowers. As a winter flower, it can symbolize resilience and determination. Parishioners were able to take them home and plant them as a way to memorialize the Shreveport victims.
Boucher writes for the Shreveport Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Yancey Bragg reports for USA TODAY.
If you or someone you know may be a victim of domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788. The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available on 988.
