Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Louisiana Mass Shooting Suspect Battled "Demons" Before Killing 8 Kids, Family Says

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Louisiana Mass Shooting Suspect Battled "Demons" Before Killing 8 Kids, Family Says · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: So on the morning of April nineteenth, twenty twenty six,
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a mother of three actually used Siri to dial nine
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one one. She had to use voice commands to trigger
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her smartphone because her jaw and her chest had just
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been shattered by nine bullets.
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Speaker 2: It's just horrific, it really is.
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Speaker 1: Her body was rapidly shutting down. I mean, her central
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nervous system was just overwhelmed by catastrophic trauma.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that level of hypovylemic shock, blood loss of that magnitude,
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completely paralyzing exactly.
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Speaker 1: But the wild thing is she wasn't calling an ambulance
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for herself.
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Speaker 2: Wow.
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Speaker 1: Driven by this like evolutionary biological maternal instinct that somehow
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overrode her own physiological collapse. She was calling to.
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Speaker 2: One the police, which is incredible.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, she actually managed to vocalize that her ex partner
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had just taken their children and was currently on his
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way to a second location.
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Speaker 2: I mean it is a profound testament to the human
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survival drive, right, specifically that instinct to protect your offspring
0:59
at the expensive yourself. Yeah. Absolutely, the sheer force of
1:02
will that it takes to navigate technology while your body
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is shutting down like that. It just shows that she
1:08
understood immediately the scale of the threat.
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Speaker 1: She knew it wasn't over right.
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Speaker 2: She recognized that the violence she had just endured was
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really just the prologue to something much, much worse.
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Speaker 1: Well, welcome to the deep dive today. We're asking you
1:23
to step into one of the most unsettling and challenging
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subjects we've ever really covered.
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Speaker 2: It's a tough one, it is.
1:31
Speaker 1: We are analyzing the events of the Shreveport Family massacre,
1:35
which is committed by thirty one year old Shamar Elkins
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in the normally quiet, tight knit Cedar Grove neighborhood of Louisiana,
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right in Shreveport. And to really grasp this, we are
1:45
pulling from just a massive stack of source material. We've
1:48
got comprehensive police reports, minute by minute, nine to eleven transcripts,
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neighborhood eye witness accounts, official city statements, and some really
1:58
devastating interviews with survivor family members.
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Speaker 2: And I think we really need to establish the gravity
2:03
of this material right.
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Speaker 1: Up front, oh depth.
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Speaker 2: The details of this event are inherently dark, They are
2:07
deeply disturbing. But our mission here is not to you know,
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traffic and tragedy.
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Speaker 1: No, not at all.
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Speaker 2: We are taking a very clinical, rigorous look at the
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anatomy of what criminologists classify as familicide. Our goals to
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dissect the exact mechanisms of this catastrophe, how domestic disputes,
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severe untreated mental health crises, and just gaping systemic vulnerabilities
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all interlock.
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Speaker 1: Because if we understand the architecture of this event, you
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as the listener, gain this critical ability to recognize the
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often invisible warning signs of crisis that exist in communities everywhere,
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even your own, yeah, exactly, maybe even in your own backyard.
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So we're looking at the fault lines that run beneath
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everyday life, and to see how those fault lines rupture,
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we really have to start with the timeline of April nineteen,
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because the timeline is staggering. It is. The sheer velocity
2:59
of this incident completely defies our typical understanding of how
3:02
domestic disputes like escalate.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not normal.
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Speaker 1: The entire event, from the very first gunshot to the
3:08
final confrontation, unfolded in barely over an hour. I mean,
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this wasn't a slow boil, you know, it was an
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immediate catastrophic.
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Speaker 2: Explosion, and that speed is the critical factor here. It
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really forces us to examine the perpetrators rapidly deteriorating psychological state,
3:25
like in real time.
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Speaker 1: So let's let's track that deterioration geographically. It is five
3:30
point five to five am on Harrison Street. This is
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the very first location.
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Speaker 2: The sun is barely even up at this point, right,
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it's so early.
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Speaker 1: This is the home of Christina Snow. She's alkins x
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partner and the mother of three of his kids. Okay,
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this is where that harrowing nine when one call actually
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takes place. So Elkins arrives and flicks near fatal injuries on.
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Christina takes his three children from the home and just flees.
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Speaker 2: See at this specific moment, at five five five am,
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the violence, while completely horrific, still fits with and a
4:00
recognized pattern of extreme domestic abuse. How so well it's targeted, right,
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The hostility is directed specifically at the ex partner, who
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he perceives as the source of his immediate grievance. Okay,
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I see, and the children at this juncture are removed
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from the scene. They are ostensibly unharmed. The perpetrator's logic, however, distorted.
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It might be is still operating within the bounds of
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punishing the mother and reclaiming the kids.
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Speaker 1: But that disported logic mutates almost instantly, doesn't it.
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Speaker 2: It does. It shifts completely.
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Speaker 1: Because by six point zero am, which is just five
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minutes after Christina triggers that Serie nine to one one call,
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Elkins arrives at the second location five minutes, just five minutes.
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This is a residence on the three hundred block of
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West seventy ninth Street. It's the home of his separating wife,
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Shan Yukopu. And inside this house there are nine people,
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the majority of them are children, and they are asleep.
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So in the span of a five minute drive, the
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nature of his intent undergoes this just terrifying transformation.
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Speaker 2: And this brings us to a concept called crisis velocity.
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Speaker 1: Crisis velocity, yes, and.
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Speaker 2: This is not merely a description of speed, you know,
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it is an actual physiological and psychological state.
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Speaker 1: Like his brain chemistry is changing.
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Speaker 2: Exactly during that five minute drive, elkins experience is a
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massive neurological shift. The amignala, which is the brain's threat
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response center, completely hijacks the preferntal cortex.
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Speaker 1: And the prefunnal cortex is the logical part right.
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Speaker 2: Right, It's responsible for logic reasoning and impulse control. Having
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just committed a near fatal shooting, he recognizes he has
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crossed a point of no return.
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Speaker 1: His life, as he knows it is basically over exactly.
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So you're talking about a physiological shift that turns a
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spontaneous act of rage into like a tactical military style objective. Yes,
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the emotion kind of drains out and it becomes purely methodical.
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Speaker 2: That is the exact mechanism of crisis velocity. Your peripheral
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vision literally narrows. The body just floods with adrenaline cortisol.
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Speaker 1: Wow.
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Speaker 2: The goal is no longer to argue, to punish, or
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even to reclaim the kids. The goal becomes total annihilation
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before law enforcement can intercept him. It's terrifying. It is
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the domestic dispute has essentially evolved into a mass casualty
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execution plan.
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Speaker 1: And the sources describe the scene inside that house on
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West seventy ninth Street as just an absolute inescapable nightmare.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the details are grim.
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Speaker 1: He moves through the home methodically, opening fire on sleeping children.
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He murders seven of his own biological children go ahead,
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and one of their cousins who just happened to be
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staying over for a sleepover.
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Speaker 2: Just terrible.
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Speaker 1: The police reports note that the back door, the interior walls,
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the hallways, I mean everything is completely riddled with bullet holes.
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But amidst this systematic execution, there is this desperate, frantic
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bid for survival. He is the sister Kiyosha Pew who
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is shnak was sister and a twelve year old girl
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realize they are completely cornered.
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Speaker 2: They have nowhere to go, nowhere.
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Speaker 1: Their only option to avoid the gunfire is to climb
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out of a window onto the roof of the house
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and jump.
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Speaker 2: And analyzing that specific action like climbing onto a roof
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to jump into the dark, gives you this visceral understanding
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of the terror inside that house. Absolutely, because human beings
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possess a very natural aversion to heights and self injury from.
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Speaker 1: Falling, right, you don't just jump off a roof exactly.
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Speaker 2: You only override that instinct and throw yourself off a
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structure if the threat behind you represents absolute certain death.
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Speaker 1: And they make the jump, the twelve year old miraculously
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survives with just scratches.
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Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
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Speaker 1: Kioshia sustains broken bones from the impact, but she does survive.
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And it's from that roof, or immediately after hitting the ground,
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that the next frantic nine to one one call registers.
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Right at six zero one am exactly, the caller is
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screaming to a relative on the line, he'd dunshot the kids,
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he killed the kids.
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Speaker 2: When the police arrive. Right then, law.
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Speaker 1: Enforcement arrives at West seventy ninth Street exactly as Elkins
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is fleeing. A neighbor security camera actually captures the audio
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of the gunshots, followed immediately by the visual of Elkins
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running to his vehicle.
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Speaker 2: The margin there is terrifyingly narrow, I mean literally a
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matter of seconds separated law enforcement from intercepting him at
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that second.
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Speaker 1: Scene, which fundamentally alters the trajectory of the whole morning
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because he gets away, because he escapes, Yeah, the threat
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spills out of the private sphere and into the public
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and this initiates the third phase.
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Speaker 2: Of the timeline, the chase.
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Speaker 1: Right from six point eighty nine am seven am, Elkins
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is heavily armed, fully immersed in this state of crisis,
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velocity and just on.
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Speaker 2: The run and he carjacks someone, right, he.
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Speaker 1: Karjacks the civilian at gunpoint, and then he leads multiple
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police agencies on a massive high speed pursuit stretching fifteen
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miles into neighboring Bossier City.
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Speaker 2: Notice the outward expansion of the threat.
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Speaker 1: Zone here, Yeah, it keeps growing.
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Speaker 2: It begins in a private residence on Harrison Street, moves
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to a second private residence on West seventy ninth, and
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finally detonates out onto public roadways.
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Speaker 1: The containment is gone.
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Speaker 2: Entirely shattered, is now operating as an indiscriminate legal threat
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to the broader.
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Speaker 1: Community, and the pursuit violently concludes. Around six point two
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nine am, police maneuver to confront him, and a gunfight ensues.
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Shots are exchanged between Elkins and law enforcement. By seven
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point am, Elkins is pronounced dead. Now to be precise
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with the forensic data provided in our sources, because early
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reports were a bit chaotic. While initial reports naturally assumed
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he was killed by the barrage of police gunfire, a
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preliminary autopsy concluded the actual cause of death was a
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self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
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Speaker 2: Oh wow.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. So to summarize the sheer density of this single hour,
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you have three distinct crime scenes across city, high speed chase,
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a carjacking, two adult women clinging to life in a
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trauma award, the perpetrator dead by his own hand, and
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eight children murdered.
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Speaker 2: Compressing that volume of destruction into sixty minutes really highlights
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the terrifying efficiency of a mind that has entirely abandoned
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societal and biological constraints.
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Speaker 1: It upends our entire framework of safety, it really does.
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And as we lay out this timeline talking about crisis
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velocity and tactical movements, we kind of run the risk
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of becoming two clinical.
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Speaker 2: Right looking at it just like a data set exactly.
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Speaker 1: We can't just read a police blodder. We have to
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humanize the victims because understanding the depth of this tragedy
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requires looking really closely at who was actually lost inside
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that house.
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Speaker 2: Because the statistics are numbing, but the reality is deeply,
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deeply human. Yeah. The center of this event was a complex, sprawling,
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beautifully blended family structure, which is so typical of so
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many communities.
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Speaker 1: We really need to hear their names, Yes, we do.
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There was Jala Elkins who was three, Jala Elkins five,
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Caleb Q six, Leala Hugh seven, soriah Snow eleven, Kadarian
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Snow six, brail And Snow five, and Marcayden Pugh who
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is ten years old.
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Speaker 2: And analyzing that list reveals the really interwoven nature.
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Speaker 1: Of their lives, the blended family aspect.
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Speaker 2: Right. Seven of those young victims were Elkins's biological children,
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spanning his relationships with both Christina and Sheneko and Marcaden.
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Marcaden was the son of Elkin's brother in law. He
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was a cousin literally just enjoying a weekend sleepover with
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his family.
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Speaker 1: It's a sleepover. It's just crushing, it is. And as
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we speak about them, we also have to acknowledge Christina
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and Shanikua, who are in the intensive care unit fighting
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through catastrophic.
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Speaker 2: Trauma, surviving the unimaginable.
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Speaker 1: The aftermath and the community is just palpable. In the
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source material, you read the quote from Troy Brown, the
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brother in law who lost his son Marquada and seven
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nieces and nephews.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember that quote.
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Speaker 1: He told reporters that he lost eight parts of me.
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He spoke with such profound grief about realizing he will
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never throw a football in the yard with them again.
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Speaker 2: Heartbreaking.
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Speaker 1: Then there's Freddy Montgomery, a longtime neighbor. He described the
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constant laughter of those kids as the soundtrack of Cedar Grove.
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Speaker 2: The soundtrack in the neighbor.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and Freddie asked a question that I think really
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strikes at the very core of this deep dive. He
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asked what type of father would do this?
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Speaker 2: And that is the pivotal psychological query of this entire
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analysis because it completely defies biological programming.
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Speaker 1: Its short circuits our entire understanding of parenthood. Because when
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we as a society hear the phrase mass shooting, our
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brains automatically load a specific script.
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Speaker 2: Yes, we picture a public space.
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Speaker 1: We envision a radicalized individual attacking a public square, or
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maybe a disgruntled former employee returning to an office building.
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We understand on some grim level the dynamics of externalized hate.
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But a father turning his own children's bedroom, which is
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supposed to be the ultimate, most primal sanctuary of safety,
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into a mass casualty zone. It contradicts the evolutionary imperative
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to protect one's offspring at all costs.
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Speaker 2: It does contradict our evolutionary baseline, which is exactly why
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criminologists and forensic psychologists classify this under a specific taxonomy camilicide. Yes, familicide.
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There's not a standard homicide. Multiply by eight. You know,
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it operates on an entirely distinct, severely warped psychological architecture.
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Speaker 1: So how do we even begin to understand it.
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Speaker 2: To understand the type of father who does this, we
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have to examine the two primary drivers that fuel.
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Speaker 1: Familicize, and I imagine neither of these drivers look anything
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like traditional logic to.
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Speaker 2: A healthy, regulated mind, they're entirely incomprehensible right, But within
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the closed toxic ecosystem of the perpetrator's mind, they form
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a strict, inescapable logic. The first driver is profound control
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and ultimate punishment.
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Speaker 1: Punishment.
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Speaker 2: Yes, The data shows that samilicide overwhelmingly occurs when the
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family unit is facing dissolution like an impending divorce, a separation,
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or the loss of child custody.
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Speaker 1: When things are falling apart, right.
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Speaker 2: The abuser, who is historically relied on dominating the family structure,
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realizes they're facing a total, permanent loss of control over
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their partner.
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Speaker 1: So the children basically cease to be human beings and
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become the ultimate instruments of life leverage.
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Speaker 2: Exactly in a state of supreme vindictiveness, the perpetrator murders
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the children to inflict a permanent, unimaginable psychological torture on
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the surviving partner.
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Speaker 1: That is just evil.
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Speaker 2: The internal narrative is essentially, if I am denied access
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to this family, I will ensure you are too. I
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will destroy the very foundation of your existence. Wow.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So that covers the punishment aspect. But the sources
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also mention a secondary driver in familicide cases that seems
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even more difficult to grasp.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the second driver is rooted in a severely distorted
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cognitive state. It's known as a twisted sense of altruism.
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Speaker 1: Wait, altruism like framing the execution of sleeping children as
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an act of charity.
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Speaker 2: It sounds insane to us, But yes, how does that
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even work? Well? It requires a profound level of delusion.
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In cases driven by this twisted altruism, the perpetrator is
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usually experiencing severe, untreated depression and has often already resolved
14:54
to commit suicide. Okay, because of extreme psychological enmeshment where
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the perpetrator sees no boundary between their own identity and
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the identities of their children. They view their own impending
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death and the collapse of the family as an apocalyptic event.
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Speaker 1: So in their warped reality, leaving the children behind to
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deal with the aftermath of a broken home or the
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stigma of their father's suicide is considered a fate worse
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than death.
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Speaker 2: That is the precise cognitive distortion. They convince themselves that
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they are saving the children from a cruel world by
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taking them out of it, saving them right. The ultimate
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act of violence is rationalized deeply and sincerely within their
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diseased mind as an act of paternal mercy.
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Speaker 1: That's chilling.
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Speaker 2: If the father's universe is ending, he feels he must
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take his universe with him.
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Speaker 1: But this twisted altruism, this belief that he had to
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save his children from his own failure, that doesn't just
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materialize out of thin air on a Sunday morning.
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Speaker 2: No, absolutely not.
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Speaker 1: It requires a specific, pre existing psychological architecture, one built
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on a foundation of severe instability, which means we have
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to turn our attention to the profile of Shamar Elkins.
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Speaker 2: We have to look at the man who actually pulled.
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Speaker 1: The trigger, right, and examining his biographical data reveals a
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really profound study in contradictions and foundational trauma.
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Speaker 2: Very much so.
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Speaker 1: He was born in December in nineteen ninety four, and
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his early life was defined by extreme instability.
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Speaker 2: The sources are pretty clear on that. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: The sources detail that his biological mother, Mahelia, was battling
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a severe crack cocaine eunction. She was entirely unable to
16:27
provide basic care, which led to Elkins being raised by
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a family friend, a surrogate mother named Betty Walker.
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Speaker 2: And that early childhood environment is crucial to note. Why
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is that because foundational trauma, maternal abandonment, and exposure to
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the chaos of severe substance abuse in the home, those
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things often disrupt the development of healthy emotional regulation. Right,
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it disrupts secure attachment styles. Yeah, he is starting life
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with a profound deficit in psychological stability.
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Speaker 1: Yet despite that huge deficit, he actually manages to con
17:00
instruct what looks like a highly structured life outwardly.
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Speaker 2: Yes.
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Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, he enlists in the Louisiana Army National Guard.
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He serves for seven years specializing in signal support systems
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and fire support. Okay, it's important to note, based on
17:13
the sources, that he never deployed overseas, so we are
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not looking at combat related PTSD here.
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Speaker 2: That's an important distinction.
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Speaker 1: But he completes a service, he's discharged as a private,
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and he secures steady, gainful employment at UPS right, So
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outwardly he is participating fully in the social contract. He
17:30
looks like a normal guy.
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Speaker 2: The military structure is a really interesting variable here, though,
17:35
how So for individuals who lack internal emotional regulation, the
17:39
military provides an external scaffolding.
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Speaker 1: Ah.
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Speaker 2: It offers strict rules, clear hierarchies, and very predictable routines.
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Speaker 1: He keeps them in line exactly.
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Speaker 2: But when that external scaffolding is removed, like when he
17:52
leaves the Guard, the internal deficits remain, and the public
17:56
records clearly demonstrate how those deficits began to manifest.
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Speaker 1: The public records show the cracks forming well before the tragedy.
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He has a twenty sixteen conviction for driving while intoxicated.
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Speaker 2: Which is a red flag on its own.
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Speaker 1: But the major red flag, the one that really forces
18:11
us to pause, is a twenty nineteen arrest for the
18:13
illegal use of weapons in carrying a firearm on school property.
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Speaker 2: That twenty nineteen incident is the critical indicator of what
18:21
of his willingness to escalate conflicts to lethal force.
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Speaker 1: Let's look really closely at that incident, because it's wild.
18:28
Elkins claimed it with self defense. He stated that individuals
18:32
in a vehicle pointed a firearm at him near a
18:34
local high school, and he fired his weapon in response
18:38
near a high school. Yeah, near high school. He ultimately
18:40
pleaded guilty to a lesser weapons charge, received eighteen months
18:44
of probation, and the school related charge was dismissed. Okay,
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but what I find truly staggering is the cognitive dissonance
18:51
in the community.
18:52
Speaker 2: Oh.
18:52
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you have a man with a documented history of
18:55
firing a weapon near school. Yet our sources emphasized that
18:58
neighbors saw him just the day before the massacre sitting
19:02
peacefully on his porch playing with his children. Right, he
19:05
appeared to be a deeply loving, attentive father.
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Speaker 2: And it is deeply unsettling for people to try and
19:10
reconcile those two images.
19:12
Speaker 1: Instead of relying on Cluche is like an iceberg. I
19:15
think it's a lot more accurate to view his psychology
19:18
like a load bearing wall in a house. Like that analogy,
19:21
think about it from the outside. The dry wall is painted,
19:25
there are pictures hung up. It looks entirely solid. That's
19:29
the father playing on the porch, right, That's what the
19:31
neighborhood sees. But behind the drywall, the structural integrity of
19:35
that wall is completely infested with termites, trauma, the trauma,
19:39
the legal issues, the unregulated anger. It's rotting the wood
19:44
from the inside out. The house is still standing, but
19:47
it only takes one specific heavy stresser applied to the
19:51
roof for the entire structure to instantly collapse.
19:54
Speaker 2: That analogy perfectly captures the psychological mechanism of compartmentalization.
19:59
Speaker 1: Compartment.
20:00
Speaker 2: Yes, we want monsters to look monstrous all the time
20:04
because that makes them easy to identify and avoid. Yeah, exactly,
20:07
but human beings are remarkably adept at walling off their
20:10
destructive impulses. He genuinely could have felt deep affection for
20:14
his children on Saturday.
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Speaker 1: Afternoon, might not have been faking it right, But.
20:17
Speaker 2: Because his emotional regulation was fundamentally compromised, the introduction of
20:22
a massive stressor on Saturday night could entirely dismantle that
20:26
compartment by Sunday morning.
20:27
Speaker 1: But how does the community fail to see the rot
20:30
in the wall? How does a twenty nineteen weapons charge
20:34
near a high school not trigger like massive systemic alarm
20:37
bells for his family and his neighbors.
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Speaker 2: Well, because families and communities possess this incredible capacity to
20:43
normalize threatening behavior as a survival.
20:45
Speaker 1: Mechanism, normalizing it.
20:47
Speaker 2: Yes, when Elkins claimed self defense in twenty nineteen, he
20:51
basically handed his family a narrative they desperately wanted to believe.
20:54
Speaker 1: They want an excuse, right.
20:56
Speaker 2: He allowed them to frame the event not as Schamar
20:59
is inherently dangerous, but rather Schamar was victimized and had
21:02
to defend himself.
21:03
Speaker 1: Wow.
21:04
Speaker 2: Yeah. If a family truly accepts that their loved one
21:07
is capable of lethal, unprovoked violence, it shatters their entire reality.
21:11
Speaker 1: It changes everything.
21:13
Speaker 2: It forces them to reevaluate their own safety and potentially
21:16
sever ties. So psychologically, it is far easier to just
21:21
minimize the event, call it an isolated misunderstanding, and cling
21:25
to the image of the good father on the porch.
21:27
Speaker 1: You normalize the threat so you don't have to live
21:29
in a constant state of panic. But that internal rot
21:33
was undeniably spreading. Specifically in the months and days leading
21:37
up to.
21:37
Speaker 2: April nineteen, it was accelerating.
21:39
Speaker 1: And this is where we have to track the escalation,
21:41
the precise timeline of warning signs, and what Elkins himself
21:45
actually called his demons.
21:47
Speaker 2: This is where we identify the specific stressors that finally
21:50
broke that load bearing wall.
21:52
Speaker 1: So let's trace it back to twenty twenty three, that's
21:54
three full years before the massacre. Shanikua, his soon to
21:58
be a wife at the time, indicates she might leave
22:00
him and take the children. The sources report that Elkins's
22:04
reaction was explosive and terrifyingly specific.
22:07
Speaker 2: What did he say?
22:08
Speaker 1: He told her, I'll kill you, my kids, and myself.
22:11
Speaker 2: See that is not a vague expression of anger. Yeah,
22:14
that is a highly explicit, textbook declaration of famicide. He
22:19
literally laid out the exact, tactical blueprint of what he
22:21
would execute three years later.
22:23
Speaker 1: Yet the family sources indicate they dismissed it.
22:26
Speaker 2: Which goes back to the normalization right.
22:28
Speaker 1: They categorize it as an empty threat, just a momentary
22:31
lapse of passion during a really bad argument. Right fast
22:35
forward to February twenty twenty six. This is just two
22:38
months prior to the murders. The structural collapse really accelerates here.
22:42
Elkins attempts suicide. Okay, he is admitted to a local
22:46
veterans affairs hospital. He underwayes treatment for roughly a week
22:50
and a half. He's prescribed a regimen of psychiatric medication,
22:53
and he attends counseling sessions.
22:56
Speaker 2: So he's getting help.
22:57
Speaker 1: Right, and upon discharge he presents as stabilized. He is
23:01
actively telling his family he loves them, but simultaneously, behind
23:05
closed doors, his marriage to Shanaika is in absolute freefall.
23:09
The sources site infidelity and just crushing financial strain. They
23:14
officially separate and a formal divorce hearing is scheduled for
23:17
April twenty.
23:18
Speaker 2: And the timing of that hearing is the most critical
23:21
data point in this entire.
23:22
Speaker 1: Chronology, because April twenty is the literal day after the massacre.
23:26
The pressure is mounting exponentially. On April fief, which was
23:30
Easter Sunday, he initiates a phone call to his stepfather,
23:33
Marcus Jackson. The sources describe Elkin's tone as completely hollowed out,
23:38
utterly despondent. He delivers this really chilling line, some people
23:43
don't come back from their demons, and then he just
23:46
terminates the call.
23:47
Speaker 2: He knows he's slipping.
23:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, ten days pass. On April fifteen, just four days
23:52
before he opens fire, he posts a public prayer on Facebook.
23:56
He openly begs God for the strength to reject depression, anger, anxiety,
24:01
and panic.
24:02
Speaker 2: We are observing a man actively vocalizing his own psychological spiral.
24:06
Speaker 1: He feels it happening.
24:07
Speaker 2: He is deeply aware of his own deterioration, and he
24:11
is staring down a deadline that April twenty eight divorce
24:14
hearing that signifies the absolute, irreversible collapse of his locus
24:18
of control.
24:19
Speaker 1: Okay, I need to push back here for a second,
24:20
and I want to frame this very carefully, because the
24:22
absolute last thing we want to do is inflict guild
24:24
on a grieving family.
24:25
Speaker 2: Right, absolutely not.
24:26
Speaker 1: But from our vantage point analyzing this in retrospect, hindsight
24:29
is twenty twenty right. Well, when we line up a
24:32
death threat from twenty twenty three, a suicide attempt in February,
24:37
and a Facebook post about demons in April, I mean
24:40
it looks like a glowing runway of red neon signs.
24:43
It does, But if you are inside that family dynamic,
24:47
is it clinically fair to label these as missed warning signs?
24:52
Speaker 2: That's a complex question.
24:53
Speaker 1: Because how is a spouse or a stepfather so post
24:56
to distinguish between a man who is tragically venting his
24:59
pain during a brutal divorce and a man who is
25:02
methodically planning the execution of eight children. Right, people say
25:06
abhorrent things during breakups every day without it ending in gunfire.
25:09
Speaker 2: Your pushback touches on the most agonizing dilemma and threat assessment.
25:13
It is profoundly unfair to expect a family member to
25:16
function as a forensic psychologist, as we discussed regarding his
25:20
twenty nineteen arrest, Proximity breeds blindness. The family builds a
25:23
tolerance to his dark moods. Hey, it used to have, right,
25:26
They tell themselves, Shamar has struggled with depression before. He
25:30
says dark things when he's down, but he is a
25:32
good father. He would never actually harm the kids. They
25:35
rely on past patterns of non lethal behavior to predict future.
25:39
Speaker 1: Behavior, so they see the suicide attempt as a cry
25:43
for help that was addressed by the VA. Not as
25:46
a rehearsal for mass murder.
25:48
Speaker 2: Precisely, but from a criminological and systemic perspective, the true
25:52
neon sign wasn't the Facebook post about demons, what was it?
25:56
The ultimate neon sign was the calendar date.
26:00
Speaker 1: The divorce hearing.
26:01
Speaker 2: Yes, if you take away one crucial insight from this
26:04
deep dive, it should be this across virtually all domestic
26:08
violence data. The moment of legal separation is not the
26:11
end of the danger. It's not, No, it is the
26:13
absolute peak of it. Wow. The days and weeks when
26:16
the abuser realizes a final, permanent loss of access and
26:19
control over the partner is statistically the most lethal window.
26:23
Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense.
26:24
Speaker 2: So the impending divorce hearing wasn't just a stressful event.
26:27
It was the spark igniting the powder keg of his
26:30
untreated pathology.
26:31
Speaker 1: That is a really vital takeaway. So writing off a
26:34
threat in twenty twenty three as just passion is a
26:37
coping mechanism. But when you combine a documented history of
26:41
suicidal ideation and threats with the concrete deadline of a
26:44
divorce hearing, the threat matrix shifts from theoretical to.
26:49
Speaker 2: Immediate, it becomes an acute, high risk crisis. But recognizing
26:53
the psychological intent is only half of the equation.
26:56
Speaker 1: Here, right, Because he needs the tool.
26:58
Speaker 2: Exactly to transition from a man in profound emotional crisis
27:02
to a mass murderer, Elkins require the physical means.
27:05
Speaker 1: Which means we must pivot our focus outward. We have
27:08
to examine the systemic mechanisms that allowed this tragedy to
27:11
physically manifest.
27:12
Speaker 2: How does he get the gun?
27:13
Speaker 1: Right? How does a man deeply entangled in a documented
27:16
mental health crisis acquire the firepower necessary to clear a
27:19
houseful of people?
27:20
Speaker 2: What did he use?
27:21
Speaker 1: The weapon used in this massacre was a point two
27:23
two caliber Mossberg seven fifteen P For context, this is
27:28
a rifle style pistol. It utilizes a high capacity magazine,
27:32
and it is designed to look and operate like a
27:34
tactical military style.
27:35
Speaker 2: Firearm, so it's heavily modified for tactical use.
27:39
Speaker 1: Exactly Crucially, the sources confirm Elkins did not walk into
27:43
a sporting good store and pass a background check to
27:46
purchase this weapon.
27:47
Speaker 2: Couldn't that right?
27:48
Speaker 1: He obtained it through the black market, specifically, through a
27:51
fifty six year old Shreveport resident named Charles Ford.
27:55
Speaker 2: And the inclusion of Charles Ford here is really vital. Yeah,
27:58
because Ford is currently facing up to fiew fifteen years
28:00
in federal prison for being a felon in possession of
28:04
a firearm and for making false statements to federal agents
28:07
regarding how Elgins acquired the gun.
28:09
Speaker 1: This represents a massive failure.
28:11
Speaker 2: It is a catastrophic failure in the perimeter of community safety.
28:15
Speaker 1: To understand how all these elements combine, we should use
28:18
the Swiss cheese model of disaster analysis.
28:21
Speaker 2: I love this model.
28:22
Speaker 1: So imagine a solid block of Swiss cheese cut into
28:25
multiple slices. Each slice represents a distinct layer of defense
28:30
within our society designed to prevent a tragedy like this.
28:33
One slice is the VA mental health care system. Another
28:37
slice is family intervention and community support networks. Another slice
28:41
is municipal funding for domestic violence resources. Another is the
28:46
legal framework preventing the illegal sale of firearms.
28:49
Speaker 2: And inherently, because human systems are flawed, every single one
28:53
of those slices contains.
28:54
Speaker 1: Holes exactly, but usually those holes do not align right
28:59
right might slip through the hole in the mental health
29:02
care system by being discharged too early, but his deterioration
29:06
is caught by the solid part of the next slice,
29:08
like a robust community domestic violence intervention program.
29:12
Speaker 2: The crisis gets intercepted.
29:13
Speaker 1: It's intercepted before it becomes lethal. But on the morning
29:16
of April nineteen, the holes in every single layer of
29:20
that societal Swiss cheese aligned perfectly. Wow, the trajectory of
29:23
elkins crisis passed straight through the entire block without hitting
29:27
a single solid barrier.
29:29
Speaker 2: It is a devastatingly accurate framework. So let's examine the
29:32
exact nature of those holes, starting with the mental health slice.
29:34
After his suicide attempt in February, Elkins is admitted to
29:38
the VA hospital. On paper, the system functioned right.
29:41
Speaker 1: He went in, he got help.
29:43
Speaker 2: He was placed on a psychiatric hold, stabilized, medicated, and
29:46
provided counseling. But we really have to understand VA discharge
29:51
protocols and the reality of acute psychiatric care. It's limited,
29:56
very limited. Ten days in a facility can stabilize a
30:00
mediate suicidal ideation, but it cannot cure profound foundational trauma
30:05
or severe personality disorders.
30:07
Speaker 1: And more importantly, where was he discharged to exactly He
30:10
wasn't sent to a supportive, low stress environment. He was
30:13
discharged straight back into the epicenter of his trauma and
30:16
unraveling marriage, deep financial distress, and the looming threat of
30:19
losing his family. Right the medical system patched the immediate wound,
30:23
but they send him right back into the burning building.
30:25
Speaker 2: Because treating severe mental illness in a clinical vacuum is
30:28
fundamentally insufficient if the patient's external environment remains highly volatile in.
30:33
Speaker 1: Triggering, which brings us to the next slice of cheese.
30:37
Municipal resources and the community.
30:39
Speaker 2: Safety net is a huge factor.
30:41
Speaker 1: The source material paints a very stark picture of Shreveport's
30:44
ongoing battle with domestic violence. City officials openly acknowledge that
30:48
over thirty percent of all homicides within the city limits
30:51
are deeply rooted in domestic disputes.
30:53
Speaker 2: It's a staggering number.
30:55
Speaker 1: They classify it as a true epidemic. Yet, just one
30:58
month prior to this mass, in March twenty twenty six,
31:02
the Shreveport City Council voted to withdraw municipal funding from
31:06
a partnership that operated a vital domestic violence resource center.
31:10
Speaker 2: And we have to analyze the mechanics of municipal funding
31:13
to really understand the impact of that decision.
31:15
Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack that city.
31:17
Speaker 2: Councils are constantly juggling budget deficits, infrastructure needs, and public
31:21
safety initiatives. Right. Often, preventative resources like domestic violence centers
31:26
face budget cuts because their successes are essentially invisible. What
31:29
do you mean, well, you cannot count the murders that
31:31
didn't happen.
31:32
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
31:33
Speaker 2: When prevention works, nothing happens. So it's easy for a
31:36
council to look at the budget and say, we can
31:38
cut this.
31:39
Speaker 1: But the vacuum created by that withdrawal is very real.
31:43
The sources feature a deeply emotional quote from city council
31:46
member Tabitha Taylor, who spoke out a vigil for the
31:49
murdered children. She was devastated, fighting back tears. She stated,
31:53
point blank, this is not a freaking joke. This is
31:57
the result when someone snaps.
31:59
Speaker 2: It's so powerful.
32:00
Speaker 1: She passionately pleaded for the reinstatement of mental health and
32:03
crisis resources, particularly for marginalized communities in Shreveport. You can
32:09
hear the profound frustration that a critical layer of the
32:12
safety net was yanked away at the exact moment this
32:15
family was entering an irreversible freefall.
32:18
Speaker 2: And the withdrawal of those resources basically widened the hole
32:21
in that specific slice of the Swiss cheese. It made
32:23
it bigger, yes, making it far more likely that a
32:26
family in crisis would just fall.
32:27
Speaker 1: Through, and finally we arrive at the last slice of cheese.
32:31
The accessibility of the weapon guy the fact that an
32:34
individual actively spiraling through a documented mental health crisis with
32:38
a prior conviction for firing a weapon near a school
32:41
could easily circumvent background checks by tapping into an illegal
32:45
local network to secure a tactical firearm with a high
32:49
capacity magazine. I mean that is the final fatal alignment
32:52
of the holes.
32:53
Speaker 2: It transforms a psychological breaking point into a mass casualty event.
32:57
Speaker 1: Now we must clearly state that our sourcement terial notes
33:00
the specific aspect of the tragedy has triggered an intense
33:04
nationwide political debate.
33:06
Speaker 2: Of course it has.
33:07
Speaker 1: Former law enforcement officials like former FBI Deputy Director Andrew
33:11
McCabe are cited advocating for the implementation of much more
33:15
aggressive intervention protocols and threat assessment strategies. Locally. This massacre
33:20
has ignited fierce demands from some political factions for the
33:24
immediate implementation of red flag laws and enhanced universal background checks. Conversely,
33:30
other factions strongly argue that the focus must remain strictly
33:33
on the severe enforcement of existing laws targeting the illegal
33:37
black market distribution networks like the one Charles Ford actually operated.
33:41
Speaker 2: And we must be explicitly clear with you, the listener,
33:44
we are not utilizing this deep dive to endorse a
33:47
specific stance on gun control legislation. We're really not or
33:51
the constitutional debate surrounding red flag laws. Our mandate is
33:56
strictly impartial reporting based on the provided material. The sources
34:01
clearly demonstrate that this event has become a massive political
34:05
flash point, forcing society to grapple with the incredibly complex
34:09
tension between protecting individual constitutional liberties and ensuring the collective
34:14
safety of a community.
34:16
Speaker 1: We are just reporting the parameters of the debate. We're
34:18
not taking a side. However, regardless of where one stands
34:21
on the political spectrum, the undeniable objective reality of April
34:25
nineteen is that the illegal acquisition of that specific Mosburg
34:29
firearm by that specific man on the eve of his divorce.
34:33
Hearing is the actual physical mechanism that turned a mental
34:36
collapse into a massacre.
34:38
Speaker 2: It is the ultimate synthesis of individual pathology and systemic failure.
34:42
Speaker 1: So as we pull back the lens from the minute
34:44
by minute timeline, the intense psychological profiles, and the granular
34:48
look at municipal failures, what is the core utility of
34:52
this information?
34:52
Speaker 2: Why does this matter exactly?
34:54
Speaker 1: We have taken you on an incredibly heavy, demanding journey today,
34:58
and it is completely natural to act yourself. Why should I,
35:02
as a listener who may live thousands of miles from Louisiana,
35:05
care about a tragedy in the Cedar Grove neighborhood of.
35:08
Speaker 2: Shreveport, right? Why immerse yourself in this level of darkness
35:11
if it doesn't directly impact your daily life.
35:13
Speaker 1: Because the demons Elkins referenced, the severe, untreated depression, the
35:19
toxic need for domestic control, the invisible pain, those pathologies
35:24
do not respect geographic boundaries.
35:26
Speaker 2: They really don't.
35:27
Speaker 1: They are not confined to Shreeveport. They exist in affluent suburbs,
35:31
in rural farming communities, in high rise apartments, they exist
35:34
in every zip code everywhere. Understanding the precise anatomy of
35:38
this familicide is not an exercise in morbid curiosity. It
35:42
is a vital lesson in radical vigilance or radical vigilance.
35:45
It demands that we exercise radical compassion and acute awareness
35:48
within our own social circles. It teaches us that when
35:51
a friend or family member makes a dark comment about violence,
35:54
we do not dismiss it as merely venting.
35:56
Speaker 2: Well, we have to pay attention.
35:58
Speaker 1: It arms us with the knowledge that the solution of
36:00
a relationship is a period of peak vulnerability that requires
36:04
maximum support and observation.
36:06
Speaker 2: It really forces a difficult internal audit. You know, oh,
36:10
are we truly paying attention to the psychological structural integrity
36:14
of the people we care about? Are we looking beyond
36:16
the fresh paint on a drywall to see the rot underneath?
36:20
Speaker 1: Exactly? And as we conclude this deep dive, it is
36:23
imperative that our final focus is not granted to the
36:26
man who inflicted this terror.
36:28
Speaker 2: No, not all.
36:29
Speaker 1: It needs to be granted to the profoundly innocent lives
36:32
that were stolen, the kids Jla Shla Kayla, Lala, Marcatum Soria,
36:37
Kadarian Braylin, eight children who deserve the opportunity to grow up.
36:42
It's just devastating eight children whose laughter provide the soundtrack
36:45
for the Cedar Grove neighborhood. Their legacy must be defined
36:49
by the joy and light they brought to their community,
36:51
not solely by the horrific circumstances of their final hour.
36:55
Speaker 2: And as we look toward the future and consider the
36:57
broader implications of this tragedy, there is a lingering, deeply
37:02
provocative question that our sources raise but cannot definitively answer.
37:07
Speaker 1: What's that?
37:08
Speaker 2: Well, we dedicate vast resources to analyzing the demons of
37:11
the individual perpetrator, Right, we dissect his timeline in his psychology. Right,
37:16
But what about the massive collective psychological trauma inflicted upon
37:20
the community left behind?
37:21
Speaker 1: The neighborhood.
37:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, when the spaces we are biologically wired to view
37:26
as sacred sanctuaries, the beds our children sleep in, the
37:30
roofs over our heads, the quiet streets of our neighborhoods,
37:34
when those are suddenly transformed into the sights of our
37:36
most unimaginable nightmares. How does a community process that, I.
37:40
Speaker 1: Don't know if they ever truly do.
37:42
Speaker 2: How does a neighborhood forever stain by that memory, ever
37:45
learn to sleep soundly again.
37:47
Speaker 1: How do you rebuild the quiet rhythm of a Sunday
37:49
morning once that sanctuary has been so violently desecrated. It
37:54
is a haunting, complex thought, and it is something I
37:57
encourage you to deeply consider as you reflect on the safety,
38:00
the health, and the invisible fault lines within your own community.
38:03
Take care of yourselves, and please look out for the
38:05
people around you. We'll catch you on the next deep dive.