In a somber service on the Saturday before Mother’s Day, hundreds of mourners at Summer Grove Baptist Church gathered to remember eight children killed in the deadliest U.S. mass shooting in more than two years. A procession filed past eight white caskets topped with gold crowns and bouquets of white flowers, each accompanied by a large photograph of a child whose life was cut short last month in a Shreveport neighborhood.
The children were identified in the funeral program: Jayla Elkins, 3, called “Jaybae”; Kayla Pugh, 6, “K-Mae”; Mar’Kaydon Pugh, 10, “K-Bug”; 6-year-old Khedarrion Snow, described as having “a sweet and loving heart”; and 7-year-old Layla Pugh, remembered as “bright, intelligent, bold, and full of love.” The other victims included the siblings’ cousin and two other siblings whose names were read during the service.
The shooter was Shamar Elkins, the father of the seven siblings. According to police, Elkins used an assault-style weapon despite a 2019 felony firearms conviction that made it illegal for him to own guns. The attack wounded the children’s mother, who had been seeking a divorce, and another woman. It spanned two houses before Elkins fled. Police said he later died, though it remained unclear whether he was killed by officers who fired or by a self-inflicted gunshot. An investigation remains open.
At the funeral, Bishop Bernard Kimble, senior pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church, opened the service by telling mourners, “In spite of how you may be feeling today, we still need to know that God is still good.” Gospel singer Kim Burrell, also a pastor, added, “The same God that healed you from the stuff that you don’t want to tell nobody about … he makes no mistakes.” City Councilwoman Tabatha Taylor acknowledged “there are no words sufficient to ease this pain,” while Councilman James Green urged the congregation to “take off our funeral face” because “this is a celebration” of the children’s lives.
Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux expressed the city’s condolences, saying, “May we honor them by carrying forward the gentleness, joy and love they so freely shared.” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, in a message read at the service, ordered flags at state buildings and the Capitol lowered. He said the victims “were the light of their homes and the heart of their classrooms. They were full of promise and found joy in the simplest things.”
Among those in attendance was former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived a 2011 assassination attempt. U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Louisiana, said, “She just wanted to come and just let the family know that this pain is not just in Louisiana. This pain is all across the nation.”
After the church service, buses transported mourners to a graveside burial. Kimble closed with a prayer for healing: “Help us as we move from this spot. Because we know, oh God, grief is only temporary.”