A Louisiana man was arrested on Tuesday and accused of providing the firearm that a gunman used to kill eight children and critically wound two adults over the weekend.
The man, Charles Ford of Shreveport, La., where the mass shooting occurred, was charged with possessing a firearm as a felon and making a false statement to a federal agent when asked about a weapon used to commit the shootings.
Eight children ages 3 to 11 were killed Sunday in a rampage that spanned at least three locations in the city, in northwestern Louisiana. The gunman, identified by the police as Shamar Elkins, was the father of seven of the eight slain children. He also shot and wounded two others, including his wife, who was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, the police said. Mr. Elkins, 31, later died in a confrontation with the police.
After the shooting, Mr. Elkins carjacked a vehicle, and officers pursued him before opening fire. It was unclear on Tuesday if officers had killed Mr. Elkins, or if he had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Family members, friends and the Shreveport community struggled to process the shootings. The mayor, Tom Arceneaux, described the killings in a news conference as “maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had.”
The police have not offered a possible motive, and their investigation is ongoing. On Monday, the police sought to answer how Mr. Elkins had obtained a gun after a previous weapons conviction. In 2019, he was convicted of the illegal use of weapons after he fired a handgun at a vehicle five times near a school.
Mr. Ford, 56, made an initial court appearance on Tuesday. A lawyer representing Mr. Ford was not listed on Tuesday evening.
“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,” Zachary A. Keller, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Prosecutors accused Mr. Ford of providing the firearm used in the shootings — a .22-caliber pistol — to Mr. Elkins. The gun was originally purchased by a woman in February 2025 and was given to Mr. Ford to hold while she was in the hospital, according to a criminal complaint. Mr. Ford was prohibited from possessing a gun after a robbery conviction in 2000 and after he pleaded guilty to domestic abuse in 2011.
Federal agents accused Mr. Ford of making contradictory statements in several interviews after the shooting. Mr. Ford told investigators that he had kept the firearm in his truck and had noticed that the weapon was missing from his vehicle in early March, according to the complaint.
Mr. Ford told federal agents after the shootings that he suspected that Mr. Elkins had stolen the firearm from his truck because he was the only person to ride with him in the vehicle. Mr. Ford said he had confronted Mr. Elkins about the missing weapon, but said that Mr. Elkins had become “offensive,” so he decided to “let it go,” the complaint said.
Christina Morales is a national reporter for The Times.
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