The suspect was killed after a police chase, and the victims, ranging in age from one to about 14, included children who were related to the attacker, Shreveport Police Department spokesman Chris Bordelon said, AP reports.
Investigators have not said what could have led him to commit the mass murder. Police have identified the shooter as Shamar Elkins, Shreveport Mayor Leigh Ann Evensky told CNN.
Two adult women and a teenager were also wounded. The women are in critical condition, while the teenager has non-life-threatening injuries.
Investigators believe Elkins is related to at least some of the victims. The mayor has previously said the suspect is believed to have had a relationship with one or both of the women, but that has not been determined. Police said the attacks began before dawn in a neighborhood south of downtown Shreveport, when the suspect shot a woman in a home and then drove his car to another location “where this heinous act was committed.”
Seven children were killed in another house, and one was found dead on the roof, after it is believed it tried to escape, Bordelon said.
State Representative Tami Phelps said some children tried to escape through the back door.
"I can't even imagine what the police found when they arrived here today," she said at a press conference.
Elkins posted a photo earlier this month with seven children, writing that they were “all his.” It is not known whether these are the children who were killed yesterday.
The suspect fled the scene, hijacked a vehicle nearby at gunpoint and was then pursued by police, according to the department.
Police said the suspect was killed after officers involved in the pursuit opened fire on him.
Neighbors about murder
Liza Deming, who lives two houses from where most of the victims were shot, said her security camera captured the attacker running away, accompanied by the sound of two gunshots.
"That's pretty much all I saw, him leaving the house and the cars driving away," she said.
Deming later went outside and saw the child's covered body on the roof of the house. She said she did not know the attacker's name.
"He looked like a father coming here," she said, adding that he had been seen with the children just a few days ago.
Pastor Marty T. Johnson Sr., of a nearby Baptist church, who owns one of the homes where the shooting occurred, said a person who works for him rented the home to the family, but that he had no direct contact with them.
The Caddo County Coroner's Office said it will not release the children's names at this time because identification of the victims is still ongoing.
Police said the two women who were wounded are in stable but serious condition.
"What began as a family dispute ended in irreparable tragedy," the district attorney's office said in a statement.
Shreveport is shaken by grief
It was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb. At a news conference outside the home where one of the shootings occurred, officials appeared shaken and asked for patience and prayers as multiple crime scenes are investigated.
Louisiana State Police said their investigators were involved in the investigation at the request of Shreveport police. They said no officers were injured during the pursuit, which also took place in Bossier City.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is from Shreveport, expressed shock and sadness in separate statements and praised the police.
