SHREVEPORT — The Shreveport Police Department and its law enforcement partners were working five separate crime scenes during the investigation into the fatal shooting of eight children over the weekend. 

Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith called the Sunday shooting "one of the worst days that has ever happened here in Shreveport." 

"One of the most challenging incidents that SPD has ever faced," Chief Smith added at a news conference on Monday.

During the news conference, Smith established a timeline of events for the shooting, starting with the initial call that notified police and ending with Elkins being pronounced dead.

Smith said the first call about a disturbance at the West 79th Street home came in at 5:55 a.m. from a person on top of the house. Within a few minutes, another call identified the suspect who "shot everyone inside the home" as Shamar Elkins.

The caller said she and her children had escaped to the roof and then fled to the backyard. 

Police arrived on the scene at 6:01 a.m. and quickly made contact with the woman who called in the shooting.

A few minutes later, at 6:07 a.m., a second call came in about a shooting on nearby Harrison Street. A woman said her boyfriend shot her, took her three children and left.

The two shootings were shortly thereafter linked, Chief Smith said.

Traffic officers then spotted a vehicle that Elkins had carjacked, traveling south on I-49 at 6:17 a.m. Officers were told the three children might be inside, Smith said. At 6:29 a.m., officers made contact with Elkins and gunfire was exchanged. The vehicle was found empty with no children inside at 6:40 a.m., Smith said.

By 7:03 a.m., Elkins was pronounced dead.

It was later learned that Elkins was the father of seven of the eight children who were fatally shot, as well as being married to one of the two women shot during the incident. 

Officials said the children — three boys and five girls — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old. Another person jumped off the roof of the house and was expected to survive. The Caddo Parish Coroner's office said the victims were identified 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.

Elkins and his wife, identified by family members as Shaneiqua Elkins, were separating and had been due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of the woman shot in the attack. She said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.

Shreveport councilmembers, the city's mayor and other officials expressed their condolences to the families of the eight children killed in a fatal domestic shooting over the weekend.

"Our community experienced a tragic act of violence that has impacted family, neighbors, that has impacted our entire city," Councilman James Green said. "Today we pause to honor the lives that were lost and the families forever changed."

Mayor Tom Arceneaux said that he wants to ensure the family members affected by the shooting are on the community's minds. 

"The biggest lesson we have is that we must protect those who cannot protect themselves," Mayor Arceneaux said. 

The shooting in Shreveport was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

Watch the news conference here: