SHREVEPORT, Louisiana — A one-year-old never got to learn to walk. A fourteen-year-old never got to finish school. Eight children, their ages spread across the whole terrible distance of childhood, were shot dead in Shreveport, Louisiana, on Sunday morning before most of the city had finished its first cup of coffee.
They were killed in three separate homes, in what police are calling a domestic disturbance. The suspected gunman, who authorities say was the father or ancestor of some of the victims, opened fire just after 6 a.m., then fled. He carjacked a vehicle. He led police on a chase into neighbouring Bossier Parish. He died when officers fired at his car.
At least ten people in total were shot. Some survived. Police have not said how many, or in what condition. There are families, right now, sitting in waiting rooms and beside hospital beds, holding hands that may or may not hold back.
“This is a tragic situation, maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had,” Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux said at a press conference on Sunday. It was a sentence that should not need to exist. It exists anyway.
Police spokesperson Christopher Bordelon confirmed what many had already feared: some of the children were the gunman’s own descendants. A man walked into homes where children who shared his blood were sleeping, and he opened fire. There is no framework for that. There is no word adequate to it.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said he and his wife were “heartbroken.” US House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was born in Shreveport, said his team was in contact with local police. Officials offered thoughts. Officials offered prayers. The children remain dead.
Before this weekend, the Gun Violence Archive had recorded at least 119 mass shootings in the United States in 2026 alone — incidents in which at least four people were injured or killed. Of the 117 people who died in those shootings, 79 were children. That number, 79, now has eight more to absorb.
Last year, the United States recorded 407 mass shootings in total. That is more than one per day. It is a figure that has been repeated so many times it has lost its horror for some people. It should not have.
The names of the eight children have not yet been released. Their families have not yet all been notified. Somewhere in Shreveport tonight, people are being told that the child they tucked in or kissed goodbye yesterday morning is not coming home. That phone call is being made, right now, to at least eight households.
They were one year old. They were fourteen. They were every age in between. They were just children.
Sources: Reuters
