This Was Not Random: Understanding Domestic Violence Lethality in the Shreveport Mass Shooting

By Dr. Alicia Hawley-Bernardez, PhD, LMSW  |  April 2026

CONTENT WARNING

This post contains descriptions of domestic violence, child death, gun violence, and intimate partner homicide. If you are currently in a dangerous situation, please call 911 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. Reader discretion is advised.

Maybe you saw the headline and kept scrolling. Maybe you stopped, felt the weight of it, and then kept scrolling anyway because what else do you do with something that enormous?

Eight children. Shreveport, Louisiana. A father. A Sunday morning.

I don't blame anyone for struggling to sit with that. Our nervous systems are not built to absorb it. But I am asking you to stay here with me for a few minutes, because what happened in Shreveport is not just a tragedy to grieve. It is a pattern to recognize. And recognizing it might one day save someone's life. Maybe even someone you love.

As a therapist who specializes in trauma and domestic violence, I've sat with survivors who have lived inside earlier chapters of this same story. The partner who said, "If you ever leave me, you'll regret it." The woman who finally filed the paperwork and felt the danger close in around her. The children who had no say in any of it.

The details of what happened in Shreveport matter. But more than the details, I want you to walk away from this post understanding why it happened and what the warning signs looked like long before that Sunday morning.

What Happened in Shreveport

Just after 5 a.m. on April 19, Shamar Elkins, 31, shot his wife, Shaneiqua Pugh, in the face at her home. He then drove to a second home nearby where eight children were sleeping, his seven children and a nephew, and opened fire. Both women were hospitalized and are expected to survive. Elkins fled the scene, carjacked a vehicle, and was shot and killed by police following a high-speed chase.

The eight children killed were three boys and five girls, ranging in age from 3 to 11. They were identified as:

•       Jayla Elkins, age 3

•       Shayla Elkins, age 5

•       Braylon Snow, age 5

•       Kayla Pugh, age 6

•       Khedarrion Snow, age 6

•       Layla Pugh, age 7

•       Markaydon Pugh, age 10

•       Sariahh Snow, age 11

A neighbor told reporters that the evening before, he had waved at Elkins on the porch while the children played in the yard. A family member described them as "precious babies" that the extended family helped raise every single day.

This is now the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since January 2024. Their deaths more than doubled the number of homicides in Shreveport for the entire year.

But here is what I need you to hold onto as you read the rest of this post: this did not come out of nowhere.

This Was a Domestic Violence Homicide And the Warning Signs Were There

Authorities were quick to label this a "domestic incident." That language, while accurate, can sometimes make violence feel contained, like something that happened between two people, behind closed doors, separate from the rest of us.

It wasn't. It never is.

Domestic violence ripples outward. It affects children, extended family, neighbors, and entire communities. And when it turns lethal, it is devastating in a particular way because the people who are hurt trusted the person who hurt them.

Here is what we know about the warning signs that were present in this case, long before April 19:

The separation period is the most dangerous time in an abusive relationship. Research consistently shows that leaving, or being left, is when lethality risk spikes dramatically.

Elkins and his wife were in the process of separating and had a court date scheduled for the very next morning to sign divorce papers. Family members told the Associated Press they had been arguing intensely about the split in the days leading up to the shooting.

According to the New York Times, Elkins had threatened his wife years earlier, before they were even married, that if she ever left him, he would kill her, the children, and himself. That threat was a lethality indicator. It was a preview of what he was capable of. And at some point, it was either minimized, forgotten, or never reported.

On Easter Sunday, less than two weeks before the shooting, he called his mother and stepfather in tears, saying he was having dark thoughts and wanted to take his own life. His stepfather tried to encourage him. Elkins responded: "Some people don't come back from their demons."

He had a prior conviction for illegal use of a firearm. He had access to multiple weapons on the night of the shooting.

Let's name what those details add up to: suicidal ideation tied to relationship loss. Prior firearms conviction. A documented history of threatening his partner with death if she left. Active and contentious separation proceedings. A court date the next morning.

These are not just sad details in a news story. They are a checklist of domestic violence lethality indicators. The very factors that trained advocates and clinicians use to assess how much danger a survivor is in. When several of these are present at once, the risk of lethal violence is not theoretical. It is urgent.

Domestic Violence Lethality: The Broader Crisis

Firearms are the most common weapon used in domestic violence homicides, and access to a gun makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed by her abusive partner. The Gun Violence Archive had already recorded at least 119 mass shootings in 2026 before Shreveport, resulting in 117 deaths, including 79 children.

Programs like Be SMART for Kids exist specifically to help communities think critically about responsible firearm storage and access, including keeping guns out of the hands of those with a history of intimate partner violence. The intersection of domestic violence and gun access is not incidental. It is one of the most reliable predictors of whether a situation turns fatal.

The Caddo Parish District Attorney's office said it plainly in a statement following the shooting: "Domestic violence is not a private matter. It is a community issue with far-reaching consequences, often affecting the most vulnerable among us, our children."

What We All Need to Know About Domestic Violence Lethality

For those of us who work with survivors, the pattern in Shreveport is painfully familiar. Here is what domestic violence research and clinical practice tell us, and what I think everyone should understand:

• The most dangerous moment in an abusive relationship is the leaving. Separation is when lethality spikes.

• Threats of homicide or suicide are lethality indicators. "I'll kill you if you leave" is not an empty threat. Homicidal threats, especially those tied to separation or paired with suicidal ideation, are among the strongest predictors of lethal violence.

• Firearm access matters. If a partner has access to firearms, the risk of homicide is dramatically higher. This is not a political statement. It is a clinical and statistical reality.

• The help-seeking window is an intervention opportunity. When a survivor reaches out to family, friends, or a therapist during a separation, that is a critical window. Take those conversations seriously. Ask direct questions. Help them connect to resources.

• Children are always affected. Children are not bystanders in domestic violence. They are direct victims of what they witness, of what they experience in the home, and sometimes, as in Shreveport, of the violence itself.

If You Are Planning to Leave Or Already in the Process

If anything in this post is landing close to home, I want to speak directly to you.

Leaving is not a single decision or a single moment. It is a process, and it requires planning, especially when there are children involved, when finances are shared, and when fear is present. The legal process (a filing, a court date, a separation agreement) does not automatically provide safety. Safety planning has to happen alongside it.

Here are some things that can be part of a safety plan as you navigate leaving:

• Identify a trusted person who knows your situation and can be a point of contact in an emergency.

• Document incidents of abuse, dates, descriptions, and photos, and store them somewhere your partner cannot access, like a private email account.

• Know your legal options: emergency protective orders, civil protection orders, and your rights regarding custody and the marital home.

• If children are involved, speak with a family law attorney about temporary custody arrangements and how courts consider a history of domestic violence.

• Build a go-bag with essential documents: IDs, birth certificates, financial records, medications, and anything irreplaceable.

• Connect with a local DV agency or advocate. Many offer free safety planning, legal advocacy, and housing support regardless of whether you are ready to leave.

• If your partner has firearms and you are concerned about their access, speak with an advocate or law enforcement about emergency relinquishment options in your state.

And if your partner has ever said, in any form, "I will hurt you or the children if you leave," please treat that as the emergency it is. Share it with someone. Document it. Include it in your safety plan.

I have a full safety planning resource guide on my website, including links to national and local hotlines and a Divorce Planning Guide for Abuse Survivors that walks through the leaving process step by step from legal considerations to co-parenting safety to financial planning.

You can find all of that here: www.aliciahb.com/resources

Saying Their Names

Before I close, I want to come back to the children. Because in the rush to analyze and advocate, which is necessary work, it can be easy to let their names become data points.

Jayla was three. Braylon and Shayla were five. Kayla and Khedarrion were six. Layla was seven. Markaydon was ten. Sariahh was eleven.

They played in the yard in the evenings. They were raised by a big extended family who loved them. They were children with routines and personalities and futures.

A brother-in-law said through tears, "I'm never gonna get to throw the football with him again. These were eight babies, precious babies, babies that I took care of, helped raise daily, on a daily basis."

Their deaths are not a statistic. They are a reckoning. And the question that sits with me, that I hope sits with all of us, is what we are willing to do differently so that the next story doesn't end the same way.

What You Can Do

• Share this post with someone who might need it. Maybe that’s a friend who is leaving, a family member who doesn't know the warning signs, or a community that needs this language.

• Learn the lethality indicators and talk about them. Normalize these conversations in your circles.

• Support local DV organizations.

  • In Shreveport: Project Celebration, 318-221-8003.

  • Nationally: the National DV Hotline, 1-800-799-7233 or thehotline.org.

• Advocate for firearm policies that protect survivors, including laws that remove gun access from those with domestic violence convictions or active protective orders.

• If someone in your life is leaving an abusive relationship, believe them, help them plan, and stay with them through the process. The leaving is the most dangerous part.

• Visit my resources page for safety planning tools, crisis resources, and the Divorce Planning Guide for Abuse Survivors.

  • www.aliciahb.com/resources

If you are in immediate danger, please call 911.

You are not alone. And you do not have to figure this out by yourself.

With care,

Dr. Alicia Hawley-Bernardez, PhD, LMSW

Therapist | Educator | Advocate  |  @aliciahbtherapy

Crisis Resources

• National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 (call or text)  |  thehotline.org

• Shreveport Project Celebration: 318-221-8003

• Louisiana Sexual Assault Hotline: 888-995-7273

• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

• Safety Planning & Divorce Planning Guide: www.aliciahb.com/resources