It is not yet 6 in the morning in Shreveport, Louisiana, when the police are alerted to an episode in progress: there are shots, there are victims. They are all children, the officers who rushed to the scene found: eight people died between the ages of one and 14. Ten people were affected in total. A massacre which, we learn shortly after, seems to have arisen from “domestic violence”. The perpetrator, a man, initially on the run, was hunted down and neutralized by the police. He died instantly and for the moment the mystery remains as to the motives of a crime as brutal as it is shocking which the city’s mayor, Tom Arceneaux, immediately describes as “a tragic situation, perhaps the worst we have ever experienced”.
The dynamics of the massacre and the escape
The details on the crime scene revealed by the police in the press conference do the rest: the fire was opened in three different places, not far from each other. Officers arriving at the scene found the lifeless bodies. Police did not identify the gunman or the victims, but said some of the children were related to the deceased man.
The shooting occurred in several areas of the city, including two homes on the same block and a third in another part of the neighborhood. It is at this point, after the man steals a car and tries to escape, that he is stopped by the police who have already been alerted with a phone call, albeit vague, reporting a domestic dispute. What we discover next is one of the most disturbing details, difficult to describe even for the authorities: a child, perhaps a minor, most likely injured, managed to escape from one of the houses stormed by the armed man and his murderous spree, running towards a nearby house. And from the latest reconstructions it cannot be ruled out that it may have been he himself, who escaped the massacre, who raised the first alarm.
The pain of the institutions and the community
“We have grieving families, grieving police officers and grieving medical examiner staff,” Mayor Arceneaux said. “This event affects the entire community, we join in the pain of these families.” A “tragic situation, perhaps the worst we have ever experienced in Shreveport”, he added, inviting prayers for the families of the victims and for the entire city in shock. Shreveport Police Chief, Wayne Smith, expressed his closeness to the entire community.
Investigations underway
“I can’t even imagine how something like this could happen,” said Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith, explaining that the investigation is being conducted in coordination with the Louisiana State Police and with the assistance of numerous other agencies. “We will work hard, for as long as it takes, to get answers about what happened,” he said.