Louisiana
As Louisiana schools seek to prevent shootings, some make do with limited resources
The fatal school shooting in Georgia this week was a tragic reminder of the ever-present threat of violence that hangs over American schools. Not that anyone needs reminding.
In Louisiana, many schools have been reviewing safety plans and running lockdown drills since the new school year began. In Caddo Parish last week, schools were practicing how to respond to an active shooter when a student sitting by the door in Ashley Samuel’s fifth-grade classroom observed flatly that he would likely be the first person shot.
“I was like, ‘No, we’re going to make sure that you’re safe,’” Samuel said. But the boy’s casual remark was jarring: “That was just a normal conversation for him.”
While deadly school shootings have become more common, they remain statistically rare. Yet even the remote possibility that gunfire could erupt inside any school looms large in the minds of many parents and educators — especially after tragedies like the one this week.
On Wednesday, a 14-year-old student opened fire at his high school in Winder, Ga., killing two students and two teachers and injuring nine others. Early reports suggest that safety measures at Apalachee High School, including an emergency-alert system and quick-acting school resource officers, helped prevent further carnage.
In Louisiana, where the Republican-controlled legislature has expanded gun rights and rejected restrictions, lawmakers and state officials have focused on enhancing school security. Last year, the Legislature passed a law requiring schools to conduct active-shooter drills within 30 days of classes starting and to adopt “panic button”-type alert systems. Also last year, the state Department of Education awarded more than $20 million in federal aid to help schools upgrade their security systems.
Yet the level of preparedness varies by school and district, according to a recent audit and interviews with district leaders. Funding is a major challenge for some school systems, especially in rural areas where limited tax revenue forces schools to rely on competitive grants for security upgrades.
One consequence of the funding challenges: About a third of schools lack a full-time school resource officer, according to a Nov. 2022 survey cited in the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s report.
But even the best safety measures cannot fully eliminate the risk of violence. Jarod Martin, superintendent of Lafourche Parish schools, said his district has invested heavily in weapons-detection systems, fencing and school resource officers.
Still, “it never provides foolproof protection,” he said. “The best you can do is be a difficult target.”
Schools search for ways to fund security
Officials in St. Helena Parish know better than most why schools need protection.
Last September, one student was killed and two others were injured after a 14-year-old shot them in a high school parking lot after classes ended. Weeks later, the district proposed a tax increase that would generate about $1.7 million, helping to pay for security upgrades and guards. Voters rejected it.
So instead, the district used a $518,000 grant from the state education department to pay for new security equipment, including two metal detectors and some cameras. Another $50,000 grant helped pay for a school resource officer, but the district will have to reapply for the grant annually, said St. Helena schools Superintendent Kelli Joseph.
“We’re here doing what we can with the limited resources that we have,” she said, “to make sure that all of our kids are safe every day.”
Jarod Martin, superintendent of Lafourche Parish schools, said no security measure ever “provides foolproof protection.”
Each district must find its own way to pay for school security, superintendents said. Possible funding sources include local taxes, state and federal grants or the district’s operating budget, though that money is limited.
Lafourche Parish is one of the fortunate school districts where voters approved a local tax to pay for school safety measures. The district has installed fences around every school and recently purchased weapons-detection systems for its middle and high schools, Superintendent Martin said. The tax also helps pay for sheriff’s deputies to work as school resource officers, which costs the district more than $1 million per year, Martin said.
“The costs of this quickly get very high,” he said.
Unlike other nearby states, including Florida and Texas, Louisiana does not require every public school to have a school resource officer, or SRO, according to the Feb. 2024 report by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.
In the 2022 survey by the state education department, about 33% of 1,257 responding public schools said they did not have at least one SRO, according to the report. One reason for the lack of coverage: Schools “that struggle with funding may have no means to fund SRO positions,” the report said.
The auditor also found that many schools lacked emergency plans that met legal requirements. In a review of 49 plans, the auditor found that about half did not address active-shooter scenarios, as required by state law.
In response to the report, the Louisiana Department of Education listed recent steps it’s taken to enhance school security. Those include hosting an annual “School Safety Summit,” awarding $518,000 grants for security upgrades, and encouraging schools to use a free app for students to anonymously report threats.
People play a critical role in school safety
Even in schools with high-tech security systems, many safety measures rely on people.
The East Baton Rouge school district employs metal detectors, cameras and even police dogs to identify threats. Yet it’s the school employees, from office clerks to classroom teachers, who are key to spotting and reporting danger, said Capt. Rodney Walker, who oversees district security.
“To me that’s the biggest defense,” he said, “just having people paying attention to small signs to maybe prevent incidents from happening.”
Research has shown that most school attackers give some advance indication about their plans, whether verbally, in writing or online. However, their peers often don’t report the warning signs.
Cathy Toliver, right, spoke at a rally to end gun violence in Baton Rouge, where her three-year-old grandson was fatally shot.
Louisiana has tried to promote reporting by partnering with Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans, which offers an anonymous reporting hotline and mobile app called Safe Schools Louisiana. Crimestoppers says thousands of tips have been reported through the system, helping to save lives.
About 650 schools have signed up to use the free app and another 75 are preparing to use it, according to Crimestoppers. But that means about 25% of eligible middle and high schools still have not signed up.
Some educators and anti-violence advocates argue that one of the best ways to keep students safe is by promoting mental health. Through counseling and other services, schools can give students the support they need to avoid violence or identify threats.
That is an approach favored by Cathy Toliver, whose three-year-old grandson, Devin Page, Jr., was fatally shot by a stray bullet while sleeping in his crib.
Toliver has become an outspoken activist in the fight against gun violence in Baton Rouge, where her grandson was killed in 2022. In her view, mental health services and support from caring adults are among the best ways to prevent young people from committing violence, both in and out of school.
“I don’t care how many security officers or resource officers they have at the school,” she said. “Until you get one-on-one with an individual and find out what they’re thinking, find out what’s going on, you are going to have these situations happen.”
SHREVEPORT, La. — Investigators are looking into how a former National Guardsman identified as the gunman who killed eight children in Louisiana on Sunday got a gun — despite an illegal firearms conviction on his record.
Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is probing how the man obtained the assault-style pistol used in the shooting, which he described as a domestic violence incident.
Shamar Elkins was arrested in 2019 and convicted of illegal use of a firearm. Shreveport Police spokesman Christopher Bordelon said Elkins was likely prohibited from legally owning firearms because of that conviction.
In an interview, Bordelon said Elkins shot most of the children in the head and “probably still in their sleep.” Elkins was the father of seven of the eight children who were killed, Bordelon said; one of the children was a cousin, according to the coroner’s office.
“It is a disgusting and evil scene,” Bordelon told NBC News.
Elkins also shot and seriously injured his wife and another woman believed to be his girlfriend, police said.
He fled the scene and died in front of a home nearby, authorities said. It was not known whether he was fatally shot by law enforcement officers or died by suicide, Smith told reporters at a news conference Monday.
The mass shooting, one of the worst in the U.S. in recent years, sent waves of shock and grief through Shreveport. Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux described it as “maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had” in the city.
In an emotional news conference Monday, city and state officials condemned the bloodshed and called on community members to advocate for victims of domestic violence.
“We cannot afford to treat domestic violence as an afterthought. We must ensure that every victim, every mother, every father, every child has access to safety,” Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry L. Whitehorn Sr. said.
The Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office, citing information provided by the children’s mothers, identified the victims 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 served in the Louisiana Army National Guard as a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist from August 2013 to August 2020, the Army said. He never deployed and left the National Guard as a private.
Shreveport police officers responded to the 300 block of West 79th street just after 6 a.m. local time after reports of a domestic disturbance, authorities told reporters.
Elkins first shot a woman on nearby Harrison Street before he went to the West 79th Street home, where he killed the children, authorities said. He then fled and carjacked a person at gunpoint near the intersection of Linwood Avenue and West 79th Street.
Police officers exchanged gunfire with Elkins in neighboring Bossier Parish after a pursuit, Smith told reporters Monday.
Police initially said that officers fatally shot Elkins at that scene, but Smith said Monday that Elkins’ cause of death was still under investigation.
In September 2017, a judge granted Elkins and Sariahh’s mother joint custody following a petition to determine paternity and establish child support, according to court records reviewed by NBC News.
The photo at the top of Elkin’s Facebook profile, which has been verified by NBC News, shows him posing with eight children, including a baby seated on his lap.
On April 9, Elkins reposted a poem addressed to God. “Today I ask You to help me guard my mind and my emotions,” it reads in part. “When negativity arises, remind me to say, ‘It does not belong to me, in the name of Jesus.’”
Ryan Chandler reported from Shreveport, and Daniel Arkin from New York.
If you or someone you know is facing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence hotline for help at (800) 799-SAFE (7233), or go to www.thehotline.org for more. States often have domestic violence hotlines as well.
Louisiana
Louisiana shooter Shamar Elkins made chilling remarks about ‘demons’ weeks before killing his 7 kids and their cousin
The deranged Army vet dad who gunned down his seven children and their cousin confessed he was drowning in “dark thoughts” and told his stepdad that some people “don’t come back from their demons” just weeks before the heinous killings, according to a report.
Shamar Elkins, 31, killed eight children — five girls and three boys ages 3 to 11 — and seriously wounded two women believed to be his wife and girlfriend when he went on a shooting rampage through Shreveport following an argument with his spouse around 6 a.m. Sunday.
Just weeks ago, on Easter Sunday, Elkins called his mother, Mahelia Elkins, and his stepfather, Marcus Jackson, and chillingly told them he was drowning in “dark thoughts,” wanted to end his life, and that his wife, Shaneiqua Pugh, wanted a divorce, the New York Times reported.
“I told him, ‘You can beat stuff, man. I don’t care what you’re going through, you can beat it,’” Jackson told the publication. “Then I remember him telling me: ‘Some people don’t come back from their demons.’”
Mahelia Elkins said she was unclear what problems her son and his wife, who were married in 2024 and had four kids together, were dealing with, the Times reported.
But a relative of one of the wounded women said the couple was in the middle of separation proceedings and was due in court on Monday.
They had been arguing about their relationship coming to an end when Elkins — who was later killed by cops — opened fire, Crystal Brown told the Associated Press.
The killer father worked at UPS and served with the Louisiana Army National Guard from August 2013 to August 2020 as a signal support system specialist and fire support specialist, according to the Times.
A UPS coworker described Elkins as a devoted dad, but said he often seemed stressed and would pull his hair out, creating a lasting bald spot, the publication reported.
Elkins’ mother noted that she had reconnected with her son more than a decade ago after leaving him to be raised by a family friend, Betty Walker. She had Elkins when she was a teenager and struggling with a crack cocaine addiction.
Walker said that she did not witness the shootings on Sunday morning but knew that Elkins shot his wife several times in the head and stomach, the paper reported.
She last saw the deranged father when his family came over for dinner just last weekend — but noted he did not appear off at the time.
“I was getting up this morning to make myself some coffee, and I got the call,” Walker recalled. “My babies — my babies are gone.”
Elkins also had two previous convictions, including for driving while intoxicated in 2016 and for the illegal use of weapons in 2019, the outlet said.
In March 2019, a police report detailed that the National Guard vet had pulled a 9 millimeter handgun from his waistband and shot at a vehicle five times after a driver pulled a handgun on him — with one of the bullets being discovered near a school where children were playing.
The victims killed by Elkins have been 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. Seven of the eight were his own children, and the eighth was their cousin. They were all found dead inside their home in Shreveport.
Most of the victims were shot in the head while they slept, Shreveport Police Department spokesman Christopher Bordelon told NBC News.
One child was killed on the roof while trying to escape, police said.
Elkins, who was later killed by police during an attempted carjacking, also shot and wounded two women — the mothers of his children — during his murderous rage.
He shot his wife in the face at the home with the eight kids, Bordelon told the outlet. The other injured victim is believed to be Elkins’ girlfriend, who was shot in a separate house nearby, the police spokesperson added.
Elkins shared four of the slain children with his wife and three with the other injured woman, according to Brown.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788.
Yasin Gungor
19 April 2026•Update: 19 April 2026
At least eight children were killed and two others were wounded in a shooting in the US state of Louisiana, local police said Sunday.
Shreveport Police Department spokesperson Christopher Bordelon said officers responded to the shooting just after 6 am (1100GMT), following a domestic disturbance call.
The age of the deceased ranged from one to 14 years, he said, adding that the incident involved at least 10 individuals across four separate locations.
The suspect attempted to flee by carjacking a vehicle and driving to neighboring Bossier City, where police located and shot him dead.
Bordelon said Shreveport police officers pursued the suspect’s vehicle into Bossier, where three officers discharged their firearms, killing him. He said investigators believe the suspect was the only person who opened fire at the locations.
Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux described the attack as “maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had,” adding: “It’s a terrible morning.”
No immediate information was available about the condition of the injured.
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