Shamar Elkins (31) carried out the shootings early on Sunday morning in Shreveport, Louisiana. In addition to killing eight children, Elkins critically wounded two women, according to Shreveport Police Department spokesperson Chris Bordelon.

The suspect later died following a brief police chase, Mr Bordelon said.

Police said it was not yet clear if Elkins was killed by police officers with whom he exchanged gunfire as he tried to flee in a car on Sunday or if he had taken his own life.

“All evidence and indications are that this erupted as a domestic dispute,” Shreveport police chief Wayne Smith said at a news conference yesterday. “The chances are good that this was not the first time.”

I remember him telling me, ‘Some people don’t come back from their demons’

One of the two women shot by Elkins was his wife, Shaneiqua Pugh. The other identified herself in a 911 call to police as Elkins’ girlfriend, Mr Smith said.

The girlfriend reported that Elkins had shot at her house a few blocks from where the eight children were killed, and that Elkins had taken her three children, whom police later found. The shooting at the girlfriend’s house took place before the killing of eight children at another home, police said.

Both women remain hospitalised.

Elkins was convicted in 2019 of illegal use of a firearm, police said, a felony that should have prevented him from owning a gun. The New York Times reported that a driver flashed a handgun at him and he responded by firing his gun five times, striking the driver’s car.

Mr Smith said that investigators were working to determine how Elkins obtained the firearm used in the killings, which he described as an “assault-style” pistol.

Mahelia Elkins, the suspect’s mother, and Marcus Jackson, the suspect’s stepfather, told The New York Times that Elkins had called them both on Easter Sunday.

During the conversation, Elkins said through tears that he wanted to take his own life and that his wife, Ms Pugh, wanted a divorce. He added that he was drowning in “dark thoughts”, while the sounds of his children playing could be heard in the background.

“I told him, ‘You can beat stuff, man. I don’t care what you’re going through, you can beat it’,” Mr Jackson said. “Then I remember him telling me, ‘Some people don’t come back from their demons.’”

As the call ended, Elkins promised to tell his children that their grandparents, who live in Oklahoma City, said “Hello”.

Ms Elkins also told The Times that she and her son did not have a close relationship during most of his life, and that they had reconnected more than a decade ago. She had given birth to her son while still a teenager and was battling an addiction to crack cocaine at the time.

A ninth child, age 13, escaped from the home with injuries

Elkins was raised by a family friend named Betty Walker, she said.

Ms Walker told the newspaper that she last saw Elkins last weekend, when his family joined her for dinner. According to her, nothing appeared to be amiss at the time.

“I was getting up this morning to make myself some coffee, and I got the call,” she said. “My babies…my babies are gone.”

Mr Bordelon, the police spokesperson, told reporters that authorities responded to the shooting just after 6am on Sunday.

Many of the youngsters appeared to have been shot in the head while they slept, Mr Bordelon said.

Seven of the children were found dead inside the home. The eighth was found dead on a back roof.

A ninth child, aged 13, escaped from the home with injuries, police said.

After carrying out the killings, Elkins carjacked a vehicle to flee the area. Police officers gave chase and opened fire on the gunman during the pursuit.

Mr Jackson told The Times that he realised something had happened when he saw strangers writing that Elkins was “the devil” on Facebook.

Then, Ms Elkins took out her phone and read a headline confirming that her grandchildren were dead.

“Why God,” she said. “Why?”

Elkins posted a prayer on Facebook earlier this month, asking God to “help me guard my mind and emotions”, the newspaper reported.

The suspect also sent his mother a photograph of his family, telling her that “everyone is doing OK”, when she replied by asking how they were.

The couple was in the midst of a contentious separation

“I love y’all,” the mom messaged her son on Thursday. “Give my grandson and my granddaughters a kiss from grandma. Thanks so much.”

The Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office identified the eight children in a statement obtained by KSLA. Jayla Elkins (3); Shayla Elkins (5); Kayla Pugh (6); Layla Pugh (7); Markaydon Pugh (10); Sariahh Snow (11); Khedarrion Snow (6) and Braylon Snow (5) were all killed.

Crystal Brown, a cousin of one of the women allegedly wounded by Elkin, told the Associated Press that the suspect and his wife were due in court last night.

The couple was in the midst of a contentious separation, Ms Brown said.

The attack was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States in more than two years, according to the AP.