A Louisiana man has been arrested in connection with the gun used to kill eight children in Shreveport over the weekend, authorities in the state said.
Charles Ford, a 56-year-old Shreveport resident, was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and making a false statement to federal agents, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana said in a statement Tuesday.
The charges relate to the gun used by Shamar Elkins, a 31-year-old Louisiana Army National Guard veteran, in the Sunday shooting. He killed eight children,ranging in age from 3 to 11, in what police described as a domestic disturbance. Seven of the children are believed to be his own. Two women, the mothers of the children, were hospitalized with multiple bullet wounds.
Following Sunday’s attack, Elkins stole a car and led police on a chase that ended in gunfire. He died after police shot at him, but it is not clear whether he was killed by police or he took his own life.
The shooting marked the deadliest mass killing in the United States in two years, with city officials calling it one of the worst days in Shreveport history.
U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Keller said authorities are investigating “every angle” of the shooting. Ford’s arrest “arises from that investigation — in particular, how Elkins secured a firearm that he used to execute his own children,” he said in the statement. “Our hope … 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.”
An attorney for Ford could not be immediately reached early Wednesday.
The incident has left the Shreveport community working to reconcile the image Elkins presented online of a doting father with the man who carried out what authorities called an “execution-style” attack, including on his own children.
Before the shooting, Elkins had been going through a divorce and was scheduled to appear in court to address a custody dispute. In mid-January, he had spent a week and a half in a local Veterans Affairs hospital for mental health evaluation.
Authorities said in court documents they traced the Mossberg pistol used in Elkins’s attack to the original owner, a woman who has not been identified publicly. She said she had given it to Ford while she was in hospital. Ford initially denied having the gun when contacted by agents — noting that as a felon he is not allowed to have firearms — but he later admitted that the woman had given it to him and that he kept it in his truck under the seat.
Ford had been convicted of robbery in 2000 and pleaded guilty to domestic abuse battery in 2011, according to court documents.
He said he noticed the weapon was missing around March 9, documents show. Ford told police he suspected Elkins had stolen it, having been one of the only people to ride in the truck with him. When confronted, Elkins became “offensive” so Ford dropped the issue, the documents state.
Special Agent in Charge Joshua Jackson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the agency is committed to holding people to account, “including those who give access to and proliferate firearms that are later used in violent crime.”
If convicted, Ford faces up to 15 years in federal prison for the possession charge and up to five years for making a false statement.
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