Children ages 1 to 14 killed in Louisiana shooting. What we know
Children ages 1 to 14 killed in Louisiana shooting. What we know
James Powel, Kate Perez and Makenzie Boucher, USA TODAY Sun, April 19, 2026 at 9:51 PM UTC
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At least eight children are dead following a mass shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana that police described as a "domestic disturbance" on April 19.
The shooting spanned three homes, according to Shreveport Police Department Corporal Christopher Bordelon, who called the crime scene "extensive" at a news conference.
Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux called the shooting possibly "the worst tragic situation" the city has ever seen and asked to keep the victims' families in their prayers.
"We have hurting families," Arceneaux said. "We have hurting police officers, coroner's personnel, fire department, sheriff people, and this affects this entire community, so we all mourn with these families."
1 / 0Shreveport, Louisiana shooting leaves eight children deadScene where eight children are dead in what police believe was a domestic shooting in the 300 block of West 79th Street in Shreveport, La. on Sunday, April 19, 2026.
The shooting was the deadliest mass shooting since January 2024, when a gunman shot and killed eight people in a suburb of Chicago, according to the /USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killing Database. It is the ninth mass killing of the year and the seventh mass shooting, according to database data.
"Eight babies, deceased, two ladies fighting for their life," Satonia Small, founder of the local grassroots organization Something Safe to Do, told the Shreveport Times, a part of the USA TODAY Network, at the scene of the shooting. "This is big, this is my area, working with domestic, and I know the people's gonna need counseling because, look at all these people, they're heartbroken
Here's what we know about the victims of the Shreveport mass shooting.
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What we know about the Louisiana shooting victims
Eleven people were shot in total and the eight children who were killed ranged in age from 1 to 14 years old, Bordelon said at the news conference. Two women suffered serious injuries and a teenager was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
Authorities have yet to identify the victims but said that some of the slain children were related to the suspect, who has yet to be identified.
“Scientific identification of the victims is still pending. Information on the identity, cause of death, and ages of the victims will be released at a later time,” Caddo Parish Coroner Public Information Officer John Prime said in a statement to the Shreveport Times.
Shreveport Councilwoman Chairwoman Tabitha Taylor said the incident was a domestic disturbance, which is something that the city council is working to be proactive with.
“Eight children are deceased. I can’t be strong, I think about this mother and the family and what the community has lost, and I do not have the words," she said through tears.
This is a developing story.
Contributing: Christopher Cann, USA TODAY; Misty Castile, Shreveport Times
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who were the Louisiana shooting victims? What we know
Source: “AOL General News”
