8 Children Killed in the Shamar Elking Shooting Laid to Rest as the Community Mourns | Funeral Servi

Children killed in that mass shooting were laid to rest. The children were killed by Shamar Elkins, who was the father to seven of them. This memorial service right here was held at Summer Grove Baptist. And Congressman Cleo Fields spoke at that funeral: “This is not a Shreveport mourning. This is a nation mourning.”

Today, Shreveport, Louisiana, buried eight children, five girls and three boys, ages ranging from 3 to 11. Eight white caskets lined side by side at Summer Grove Baptist Church. Gold crowns placed on top of each one. White flowers and photographs—large photographs of each child—placed next to their casket so that every person who walked past could look at their face and remember exactly who they were before the 19th of April took them.

This is the day this community has been dreading since the moment law enforcement cleared that house on West 79th Street. And it falls on Mother’s Day weekend. Three mothers lost eight children in one morning. Two of them sat in that church today. One still carrying a bullet lodged in her face. One recovering from surgery after shattering her pelvis, jumping from a roof. The third, Cheniqua Pew, remains the only survivor still hospitalized. She could not be there today. She is still in the ICU.

But while that community grieved, the federal investigation into how this happened did not pause. Two days before today’s funeral, on the 7th of May, a federal grand jury handed down formal indictments against both men charged in connection with this case. Charles Ford was indicted for supplying the weapon. Michael Mance was indicted for illegally possessing firearms in his home. And federal investigators revealed something about Mance this week that nobody had said out loud before—something that reframes his role in this story completely.

Today, we cover all of it. The funeral, the children who were buried, the survivors and where they stand right now, the mental health of the 12-year-old girl who jumped from that roof, the indictments, and the new detail about Mance that the ATF confirmed publicly on the 8th of May. Welcome to Oju Crime Stories. Subscribe right now and tap that notification bell. Every development on this case arrives here first. Leave a comment and tell us where in the world you are watching from.

Here is everything confirmed. Saturday the 9th of May, 2026, Summer Grove Baptist Church, Shreveport, Louisiana. The service began with a long procession of mourners slowly filing past eight white caskets with large photos of the children placed next to each one. Gold crowns and bouquets of white flowers sat on top of the closed caskets. Attendees dressed in pink, purple, and blue. The colors of children, the colors of life.

Some of the children had affectionate nicknames. 3-year-old Jayla Elkins was called Jbe. 6-year-old Kayla Pew was Kay May. 10-year-old Marquaden Pew was K Bug. 6-year-old Cadarian Snow had what the funeral pamphlet described as a “sweet and loving heart.” And though his life on Earth was short, his light was mighty. 7-year-old Leila Pew was described as bright, intelligent, bold, and full of love; a girl who enjoyed making TikTok videos with her siblings and cousins. These were not abstract victims. These were children with nicknames. Children who made TikTok videos, children who had plans for summer camp, children who had not yet lived long enough to know how much world was waiting for them.

Among those in attendance were Shreveport Councilwoman Tabitha Taylor, Councilman James Green, Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux, and former United States Representative Gabby Giffords. Councilwoman Taylor acknowledged that there are no words sufficient to ease this pain. Councilman Green implored the audience to take off their funeral face because this is a celebration of the children’s lives. Pastor and gospel singer Kim Burrell addressed the congregation directly to ask the question, “Why is this fair God? How could you, Lord?” “He’s still God,” Burrell said, “the same God that healed you from the stuff that you don’t want to tell nobody about. But he is a God that doesn’t have to give us all the clues. Just know that he makes no mistakes.”

After the service, the caskets of all eight children were carried on caissons to Forest Park Cemetery West in Shreveport, where roses were placed on each casket during the burial. All eight children were laid to rest near one another. The Louisiana Governor’s Love One Louisiana Foundation covered all funeral and burial costs. Not one family had to pay a dollar to bury their child today. Governor Jeff Landry, who pledged those funds in the days following the shooting, said of Shamar Elkins: “I couldn’t place myself in the shoes of any father who could execute their child or their children. It was from one house to the other. It wasn’t a fit of rage when he snapped once. It was systematic.”

Systematic. That word from Louisiana’s governor carries weight because the evidence that has emerged over the past three weeks confirms exactly that. Here is the confirmed status of every survivor as of the most current verified reporting.

Cheniqua Pew, Elkins’s wife, mother of four of the eight children killed, was shot nine times on the morning of the 19th of April in the face and in the stomach. She has undergone multiple surgeries. As of the most recent confirmed reporting, she remains in the ICU, the only survivor of that morning still hospitalized. She was not able to attend today’s funeral. Her family is managing the number of people around her to keep her environment as calm and controlled as possible. She has been seen from her hospital bed re-sharing videos of herself with the four daughters she lost. Her cousin, Crystal Brown, confirmed to reporters that Elkins had not responded well to the divorce filing in the days before the shooting, that he was argumentative about it, though there had been no prior physical violence reported in that period. Cheniqua Pew survived nine gunshot wounds. She is alive, and she is going to wake up every morning for the rest of her life knowing that her children were buried on Mother’s Day weekend while she lay in a hospital bed unable to be there.

Christina Snow, Elkins’s ex-wife, mother of Brilan, Cadarian, and Sariah, was shot in the face nine times. A bullet remains lodged in her face as of the most recent confirmed reporting. She was discharged from the hospital on the 23rd of April. She is facing not only physical recovery but a devastating psychological battle. Her cousin, Jammarcus Snow, told NBC News, “All she worked for was her kids and all she talked about was her kids. It’s devastating.” Christina Snow has ongoing memory issues. According to her cousin, Jammarcus Snow, that detail confirmed by family to NBC News means Christina is not only physically recovering from nine gunshot wounds and a bullet still in her face, but she is also battling cognitive effects from the trauma that her brain sustained that morning. Her body survived. Her mind is still fighting. She attended the vigil for her children at the Head Start facility where Brilan and Cadarian were enrolled. She stood among teachers and community members and released balloons for sons who loved visiting the farm and had been planning their summer together.

Kiosha Pew, Cheniqua’s sister, lived in that house. She grabbed her children and ran for the roof when Elkins came through the door. Her 10-year-old son, Marquaden, was shot and killed as they tried to get away. Kiosha broke her pelvis and hip after jumping off the roof with her daughter Mariana while fleeing the gunfire and is recovering. She attended the community vigil in a wheelchair, still recovering from surgery. She has been sharing details of the funeral with the wider community in the weeks since. She buried her son today. She did it from a wheelchair with a fractured pelvis. And somewhere beside her was her daughter, Mariana, the 12-year-old, who jumped from that same roof and came down alive.

Shreveport police confirmed that the surviving child who escaped the mass shooting by jumping off the roof is a 12-year-old girl, and she has been released from the hospital. Her name is Mariana. She is Kiosha’s daughter. She was inside that house when Shamar Elkins came through the door. She ran. She reached the roof. She jumped in the dark while her brother was being killed below her. She came down with scratches on her body while her mother shattered her pelvis beside her. She is home now, and today she attended the funeral of eight people she loved. What does a 12-year-old carry from a morning like that into the rest of her life?

Brentwood Hospital in Shreveport opened a pop-up mental health clinic to serve those affected by the shooting. William Weaver, CEO of Brentwood Hospital, said people dealing with mental health issues have a lot of medical issues as well: “Let’s just offer medical screening.” Caddo Parish Schools is also offering counseling services to students, with counselors meeting students where they are, offering empathy, flexibility, and stability to begin to process their grief. According to Ranatada Mahoney, Caddo Parish Supervisor of Counseling, those resources exist. They are available to the community. But Mariana’s situation is not a community grief situation. It is something more specific and more acute than that.

Child trauma specialists who work with survivors of mass domestic violence events are consistent on what they document in cases like hers. What Mariana experienced is called a complex traumatic event. Not a single trauma, but multiple simultaneous traumas occurring in rapid succession. She witnessed violence. She fled violence. She lost her brother to that violence in real-time. She was physically injured escaping it. And she survived while eight people around her did not.

Research on child survivors of familicide—the specific category of violence where a parent kills intimate partners and children—shows that the psychological impact on surviving children often does not surface in its full form immediately. In the weeks after the event, the child may appear functional. They may even appear calm. What clinicians call the delayed onset of trauma response means the full weight of what Mariana experienced may not present until months from now or years from now when something triggers the memory in a context she is not prepared for.

Survivor’s guilt in children is particularly complex. Mariana did not choose to be the one who survived. She chose to jump. But in a 12-year-old’s processing of that morning, the question of why she made it when Marquaden did not, when Jayla, Shayla, Kayla, Leila, Brilan, Cadarian, and Sariah did not, is a question that, without specialized, sustained therapeutic intervention, can attach itself to her identity for the rest of her life. She needs a specific kind of care. Not a school counselor, not a pop-up mental health clinic, but a trauma-specialized therapist with direct experience in child survivors of familicide. Someone who understands the specific psychological architecture of what she experienced that morning and can walk with her through the process of building a life that is not defined by it.

Brown, Elkins’s brother-in-law, said his daughter, the 12-year-old who jumped from the roof, just had some scratches from Sunday’s attack. Physically, she walked away. What she is carrying on the inside is the part that has received the least attention in every single outlet that has covered this case. Today, Mariana attended a funeral for eight people she loved. She sat in Summer Grove Baptist Church and looked at eight white caskets with gold crowns on top. She is 12 years old. That child deserves every resource this country has to offer.

Starting yesterday, on the 7th of May, two days before today’s funeral, a federal grand jury handed down formal indictments against both men charged in connection with the Shamar Elkins case. Charles Ford was charged on the 21st of April and indicted on the 7th of May for being a felon in possession of the gun Elkins used to commit the mass shooting. He is also accused of lying to ATF agents as they investigated how Elkins got that weapon. Michael Mance was charged on the 25th of April and indicted on the 7th of May for illegally possessing a gun while under a court order for domestic violence. Both men now face federal prosecution. Both are moving through the federal court system. Neither has entered a plea on the indicted charges as of the most current reporting.

But here is the detail that emerged on the 8th of May, the day before the funeral, that has not been widely reported. And that changes the picture of Mance significantly. ATF Special Agent in Charge Joshua Jackson stated publicly, “We do know that Mance and Elkins had a relationship, a friendship, and through the course of the investigation and speaking to Mance, Mance appeared to also be agreeable with Elkins in the actions that he took.”

Read that carefully. The federal agent heading the ATF’s involvement in this investigation stated publicly that Mance appeared to be agreeable with the actions Elkins took. Not just that he knew Elkins, not just that he had a relationship with him—that he appeared to agree with what Elkins did. That statement made by a federal law enforcement official at a press conference is the most significant new development in this case since the indictments themselves. It does not constitute a formal charge of conspiracy or agreement, but it signals that investigators are looking at Mance’s role in this case as potentially more than a passive bystander with illegal guns in his home.

What that means for the scope of the prosecution going forward has not been publicly stated. The investigation is ongoing. Mance’s sister has appeared on the news defending him. She believes the charges are unjust. Members of his military community have described him as a great man and a loyal friend. Those accounts exist alongside the ATF agent’s statement on the public record. Both are now part of the story.

In the days leading up to and following today’s service, officials and community members have spoken. Here is what is on the public record: Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux called the shooting perhaps the worst tragic situation the city has ever faced. He said it rattles an entire city of just over 180,000 people. He has stated his office is working to support the development of a comprehensive domestic violence center in Shreveport. A direct acknowledgement that the March 2026 city council vote to withdraw from the domestic violence resource center partnership was a failure that this city now has to address.

Caddo Parish Public Schools Superintendent Keith Burton called on the community to take care of its children and families and those carrying the weight of this tragedy. That statement carries particular relevance in the context of Mariana. She is a child in the Caddo Parish school system. She is going to return to a classroom. She is going to sit among peers who may or may not know what she survived. The superintendent’s call to take care of the children is not abstract. It has a name, and that name is Mariana.

Dr. Denise Shervington, a professor and chair of psychiatry at Charles R. Drew University and founder of the Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies, wrote in response to this case: “Untreated trauma is the underbelly of violence.” She noted that Elkins had sought help—he spent 10 days at the VA hospital—but that the system of untreated trauma, racial bias, mental health diagnosis, and barriers to care for black men in America created the conditions in which a man in a visible crisis was discharged back into the circumstances that produced the crisis. That analysis does not excuse what Elkins did. Nothing does. But it locates the failure inside a system that was visible and documented before the 19th of April arrived.

Katherine Spearman, an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University who studies the intersection of domestic violence and child abuse, compared this case to other familicide events and noted the pattern of a man who could not tolerate the loss of control represented by the divorce proceeding. That pattern, documented in the behavioral literature on familicide, was present here in every detail confirmed by the people who knew Elkins.

As of the 9th of May, 2026, the day eight children were laid to rest, here is what remains active and unresolved in the federal investigation: Charles Ford has been indicted on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and providing Elkins with the assault-style rifle used in the shooting. Michael Mance has been indicted on firearm charges after police recovered multiple guns from his home. The investigation is ongoing. The full ATF trace of how the small-caliber handgun used in the first part of the attack was obtained remains publicly unanswered. The Louisiana State Police investigation into the officer-involved shooting at Brampton Lane remains technically open. A preliminary autopsy report said that Elkins died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but the final official report has not been publicly released. The Shreveport Police Department’s active motive investigation remains open. No formal motive has been publicly declared beyond the classification of entirely a domestic incident.

ATF Special Agent in Charge Joshua Jackson confirmed on the 8th of May that agents have been working to determine how the firearm came into Elkins’s possession, including interviewing people Elkins spoke with before the shooting. That sentence suggests the investigation is still actively examining the network of people around Elkins in the weeks and months before the 19th of April. More may follow.

Today, eight children were buried. Their nicknames are in the funeral pamphlets that community members carried out of Summer Grove Baptist Church this morning. Jbe, Kay May, K Bug, a boy with a sweet and loving heart whose light was mighty. A girl who made TikTok videos with her siblings. Children who wanted to open homeless shelters and become community leaders. They were buried near each other at Forest Park Cemetery West. Roses were placed on each casket, and the people who loved them walked away from that cemetery carrying something that no funeral can resolve and no investigation can return.

Cheniqua Pew is still in the ICU. Christina Snow is home with a bullet in her face and ongoing memory issues. Kiosha Pew attended her son’s funeral in a wheelchair with a fractured pelvis. And Mariana, 12 years old, sat in that church today and looked at eight white caskets. The federal prosecution of Charles Ford and Michael Mance will move forward. The investigation will continue to produce findings. When those findings become public, we will cover them here.

If this is the standard of reporting you are looking for—verified sources, funerals covered with the same care as court documents, survivors named and not forgotten—subscribe to this channel. Hit the notification bell. Every development on this case comes here first. Leave a comment. Tell us where you are watching from. Tell us which of these children you were holding in your thoughts today. Those eight children deserved every year that was taken from them. Mariana deserves every resource, every therapist, and every conversation this country is capable of having starting right now. And Cheniqua Pew deserves to heal in full, not just physically, but into a world that actually learned something from what happened on the 19th of April.