A man who previously had the assault-style gun used to kill eight children in Louisiana told investigators he believes Shamar Elkins stole it from his truck in the weeks before the rampage in a Shreveport neighborhood, according to court documents released Tuesday.
Charles Ford told investigators he suspected Elkins, who was the father of seven of the children killed, because he was one of the few people to ride with him, according to a criminal complaint filed in Louisiana federal court. Ford allegedly said it was around March 9 when he noticed the gun was missing.
Ford said he confronted Elkins about the missing weapon. But when Elikns became “offensive," Ford "let it go," according to a court affidavit filed Tuesday.
The affidavit is in support of federal charges that accuse Ford of being a felon in possession of a firearm and making a false statement to federal agents. He originally denied having the gun when first approached by investigators after the shooting Sunday, according court records.
“Elkins’ death means that our community will never see him face justice,” U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Keller said in a statement. “Our hope, as we continue to investigate and prosecute this case alongside our law enforcement partners, is that holding the person whose gun Elkins used to perpetrate the crime accountable will give some small bit of solace to our Shreveport community.”
Ford does not currently have an appointed legal representative and is expected to receive a federal public defender, according to federal court records.
An attorney who previously represented Ford could not immediately be reached for comment. Efforts to reach family members of Ford could not be immediately contacted at other phone numbers associated with him.
Elkins died after fleeing and a police pursuit. It was not clear whether he was killed by officers who fired or from a self-inflicted gunshot, according to police.
Elkins' wife and another woman were also shot and wounded in the rampage, which unfolded across two houses before dawn.
Officials said the children who died — three boys and five girls — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old.
Elkins plead guilty in 2019 to a felony of illegal use of weapons, according to court documents. As a result, a Caddo Parish district judge sentenced Elkins to 18 months of supervised probation, and Elkins turned his handgun into police as a condition of probation, court filings show.
Under Louisiana law, a person convicted of certain violent felonies – including illegal use of weapons – are banned from having a gun for at least 10 years after completing their sentence and probation.
Officials have not addressed whether Elkins was legally prohibited from having a weapon.
The tragedy in Louisiana is one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings in recent years.
“Families should be able to feel safe at home, but this tragedy shows how gun violence can shatter lives in an instant,” said Lindsay Nichols, policy director for Giffords Law Center, which is an organization that aims to curb gun violence.
For years, advocates for stronger gun control have sought to tighten Louisiana's loose firearm regulations. Democrats routinely propose red flag laws, but Republicans in the reliably red state block the measures.
People gesture after lighting candles during a prayer vigil for the victims of a mass shooting earlier in the day, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Shreveport, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Police work outside the scene of a mass shooting, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Shreveport, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A makeshift memorial is growing on the front lawn of a home as the door in the background shows bullet holes and evidence markers where children were killed during a mass shooting the day before in Shreveport, La., Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Virginia voters on Tuesday were deciding whether to ratify an unusual mid-decade redrawing of U.S. House districts that could boost Democrats’ chances of flipping control of the closely divided chamber, as the state becomes the latest front in a national redistricting battle.
A proposed constitutional amendment backed by Democratic officials would bypass the state's bipartisan redistricting commission to allow use of new congressional districts approved by state lawmakers in this year's midterm elections.
The referendum, which needs a simple majority to pass, tests Democrats' ability to push back against President Donald Trump, who started the gerrymandering competition between states after successfully urging Texas Republicans to redraw congressional districts in their favor last year. Virginia is the second state, after California last fall, to put the question to voters.
It also tests voters' willingness to accept districts gerrymandered for political advantage — coming just six years after Virginia voters approved an amendment meant to diminish such partisan gamesmanship by shifting redistricting away from the legislature.
Though polling places have closed, ballots mailed by Tuesday can still be counted if they arrive in the next few days. But even if the referendum is successful, the public vote may not be the final word. The state Supreme Court is considering whether the redistricting plan is illegal in a case that could make the referendum results meaningless.
Congressional redistricting typically is done once a decade after each U.S. census. But Trump urged Texas Republicans to redistrict ahead of the November elections in hopes of winning several additional seats and maintaining the GOP's narrow House majority in the face of political headwinds that typically favor the party that is out of power during midterms.
The Texas gambit led to a burst of redistricting nationwide. So far, Republicans believe they can win up to nine more House seats in newly redrawn districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.
Democrats think they can win up to five more seats in California, where voters approved a mid-decade redistricting effort last November, and one more seat under new court-imposed districts in Utah. Democrats hope to offset the rest of that gap in Virginia, where they decisively flipped 13 seats in the state House and won back the governor’s office last year.
The stream of voters was steady Tuesday at a recreation center in the Old Town area of Alexandria, Virginia.
Matt Wallace, 31, said he votes regularly but this election has additional emphasis.
“I think the redistricting issue across the country is unfortunate, that we’ve had to resort to temporary redistricting in order to sort of alter our elections across the country," he said. Wallace said he voted for the Democratic redistricting amendment "to help balance the scales a bit until things get back to normal.”
Katie Reusch, 35, said she thought the amendment was necessary to respond to the Republicans' redrawing of congressional districts in Texas last year: “You can’t just say we’re in power so we’re changing things so we stay in power,” she said.
But Joanna Miller, 29, said she voted against the redistricting measure, “because I want my vote to count in a fair way.” Miller said she was more concerned about representation in Virginia than trying to offset actions in other states.
“I want my vote and my representation to matter this fall,” she said.
That concern is particularly acute among conservative voters in the state's rural areas, many of which would be drawn into congressional districts that will be dominated by Democratic-leaning cities and suburbs.
Ruth Ann McCartney, voting in the town of South Hill, a few miles north of the North Carolina border, said she cast her ballot against the amendment.
“I look at it more, not really in terms of Republican versus Democrat,” she said. “I look at it more as we don’t have the population as northern Virginia. And as a rural area, we just need to be heard.”
Leaders of both major parties see Tuesday’s vote as crucial to their chances to win a House majority in the fall. Trump weighed in via social media Tuesday morning, telling Virginians to “vote ‘no’ to save your country!”
Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, rallied with opponents of the measure Monday night, calling the redistricting plan “dishonest” and “brazenly deceptive.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters at the Capitol earlier in the day that a vote to approve the redraw “will serve as a check and balance on this out-of-control Trump administration.”
A committee supporting the Democratic redistricting effort had raised more than $64 million — three times as much as the roughly $20 million raised by opponents, according to finance reports filed less than two weeks before the election.
The back-and-forth battle over congressional districts is expected to continue in Florida, where the Republican-led legislature is scheduled to convene April 28 for a special session that could result in a more favorable map for Republicans.
In Virginia, Democrats currently hold six of the 11 U.S. House seats under districts that were imposed by the state Supreme Court in 2021 after a bipartisan commission failed to agree on a map based on the latest census data.
The new plan could help Democrats win as many as 10 seats. Five are anchored in Democratic-heavy northern Virginia, including one shaped like a lobster that stretches into Republican-leaning rural areas.
Revisions to four other districts across Richmond, southern Virginia and Hampton Roads dilute the voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. And a reshaped district in parts of western Virginia lumps together three Democratic-leaning college towns to offset other Republican voters.
The Virginia redistricting plan is "pushing back against what other states have done in trying to stack the deck for Donald Trump in those congressional elections,” Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger said during an online rally last week.
Ads for the “yes to redistricting” campaign featuring former President Barack Obama have flooded the airwaves.
Opponents have distributed campaign materials citing past statements from Obama and Spanberger criticizing gerrymandering, but those were before Trump pushed Republican states to redraw their congressional maps in advance of this year's midterms.
Democrats “were all against gerrymandering before they were for it,” Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeff Ryer said.
Virginia lawmakers endorsed a constitutional amendment allowing their mid-decade redistricting last fall, then passed it again in January as part of a two-step process that requires an intervening election for an amendment to be placed on the ballot. The measure allows lawmakers to redistrict until returning the task to a bipartisan commission after the 2030 census.
In February, they passed a new U.S. House map to take effect pending the outcome of the redistricting referendum. Republicans have filed multiple legal challenges against the effort.
A Tazewell County judge ruled that the redistricting push was illegal for several reasons. Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. said lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session.
He ruled that their initial vote failed to occur before the public began casting ballots in last year’s general election and thus didn’t count toward the two-step process. He also ruled that the state failed to publish the amendment three months before that election, as required by law.
If the state Supreme Court agrees with the lower court, the results from Tuesday's vote could be rendered moot.
Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed in South Hill, Virginia, Gary Fields in Alexandria, Virginia, and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
"I Voted" stickers are laid out on a table at Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy on election day for the Virginia redistricting referendum, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A person votes in the Virginia redistricting referendum at Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A person votes in the Virginia redistricting referendum at Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A person walks to vote in the Virginia redistricting referendum at Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
