In a tragic incident that has left a community in shock, a father from Louisiana opened fire on his family early Sunday morning. The attack resulted in the deaths of eight children, seven of whom were his own, across two homes in a Shreveport neighborhood. This horrific event is one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States in recent years, according to law enforcement officials.

Shreveport Police Department spokesperson Chris Bordelon reported that the gunman’s wife, along with another woman, were critically injured in the shooting. The children, all of whom lost their lives in the same residence, ranged from ages 3 to 11.

The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, was killed following a police chase that concluded with officers shooting him, Bordelon stated. While the motive behind the violence remains unclear, detectives are confident that it was a “completely domestic incident,” he added.

This attack marks the most deadly mass shooting in the country in over two years.

“I am at a loss for words; my heart is deeply troubled,” said Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith. “I can’t fathom how something like this could happen.”

Bordelon mentioned that the police were aware of Elkins due to a 2019 firearms arrest, but there had been no prior known incidents of domestic violence involving him.

Elkins previously served in the Louisiana Army National Guard for seven years, according to an Army official. He never deployed and left the Army as a private in 2020, the official said.

Elkins appeared to post a photo with his children on Facebook.

Police said the attacks began before sunrise in a neighborhood south of downtown Shreveport when the suspect shot a woman at one home and then drove to the other location “where this heinous act was carried out.”

Seven children were killed inside the second house, and one was found dead on the roof after apparently trying to escape, Bordelon said. Another child jumped off the roof and was expected to survive after being taken to a hospital.

State Rep. Tammy Phelps said some children tried to get away through the back door. “I can’t even imagine what the police officers, first responders actually dealt with when they got here today,” she said at a news conference.

Family member says suspect was separating from his wife

The victims were three boys and five girls, according to the Caddo Parish Coroner’s office.

Shamar Elkins and his wife were in the middle of separating and were due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, who is a cousin of one of the wounded women. Brown said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.

“He murdered his children,” Brown said. “He shot his wife.”

Elkins shared four children with his wife and three children with another woman who lived close by and who was also shot, according to Brown. All the children were together at one house, she said.

Brown described all the children as “happy kids, very friendly, very sweet.”

Police said the children, siblings and one cousin, including three boys and five girls ranging in age from 3 to 11, were identified by their mothers as 3-year-old Jayla Elkins, 5-year-old Shayla Elkins, 6-year-old Kayla Pugh, 7-year-old Layla Pugh, 10-year-old Markaydon Pugh, 11-year-old Sariahh Snow, 6-year-old Khedarrion Snow and 5-year-old Braylon Snow.

A neighbor wakes up to a mass shooting

Liza Demming, who lives two houses down from where most of the victims were shot, said her security camera captured video of the suspect running away, along with the sound of two shots.

“That’s pretty much all I saw, was him running out of the house and the cars leaving,” she said.

Demming later went outside and saw the covered body of a child on the home’s roof.

Pastor Marty T. Johnson Sr., of nearby St. Gabriel Community Baptist Church, who owns one of the homes where the shootings occurred, said a person who works for him had rented it to the family, but he never had dealings with them.

“What began as a domestic dispute has ended in irreversible harm,” the parish’s district attorney’s office said in a statement.

Shreveport is overwhelmed by grief

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

At a news conference outside the residence where one of the shootings occurred, officials appeared stunned, requesting patience and prayers from the community as they sorted through multiple crime scenes.

“This is a tragic situation – maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had,” said Tom Arceneaux, mayor of the city in northwestern Louisiana with about 180,000 residents. “It’s a terrible morning.”

Hours after the shooting, mourners gathered outside the single-story house on 79th Street and laid flowers. One door appeared stained with blood. Later that evening at a nearby prayer vigil, Kimberlin Jackson joined other members of the community who lit candles for the victims in a parking lot.

“It just makes you take your children and hug them and hold them and tell them how much you love them,” she said.

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This story has been corrected to attribute the statements about the shooting to police spokesperson Chris Bordelon, not Police Chief Wayne Smith, and corrects the ages of the children killed based on updates by officials.

ABC News contributed to this report.