A Final Moment of Peace Before the Carnage: Neighbor’s Footage Shows Shamar Elkins Playing with His 8 Children 12 Hours Before the Massacre. A Sick ‘Farewell’ to Give Them Joy Before Heaven, While the Children Knew Nothing of His HAUNTING Execution Plot

THE MASK OF A MONSTER: HAUNTING NEIGHBORHOOD CAMERA CAPTURES SHAMAR ELKINS PLAYING WITH CHILDREN HOURS BEFORE THE MASSACRE

SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA — In the final hours before darkness consumed the home on West 79th Street, a neighbor’s security camera captured a scene of breathtaking peace. Shamar Elkins, the father who just hours later would become a cold-blooded killer, was seen playing with his children in the afternoon sun. These images, combined with the accounts of stunned neighbors, paint a terrifying portrait of a man who seemingly wanted his children to “play happily one last time” before he personally sent them into eternity.

12 Hours Before the Tragedy: The Final Laughter

Montgomery, a neighbor living nearby, still cannot come to grips with what he witnessed just 12 hours before the gunfire erupted. To him, the sight of the Elkins children playing in the street or the yard was a familiar part of daily life.

The security footage does not show a man who appeared to be preparing for the deadliest massacre in the city’s history. Elkins moved about the yard, interacting with the children as they ran and laughed. Investigators and neighbors who later reviewed the tape could not help but shudder: Was this his way of “saying goodbye” to the children? Was it possible that in the delusional mind of a veteran besieged by “shadows” and “dark thoughts,” he wanted his children to taste earthly joy one last time before he carried out his lethal plan?

Christina Snow and 3 childrens

The Shock of the Neighbor

On Sunday morning, as police sirens pierced the quiet of the neighborhood, the first thought that entered Mr. Montgomery’s mind was for the children he saw every day. As a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, his instinct was to pray for their safety.

“You hope the children are all right,” Montgomery shared through his grief. “But they were not.”

For those who witnessed the scene, accepting the reality that the father who was just playing with his children the previous afternoon could turn around and murder them the next morning is unforgivable. The most painful question remains hanging in the air: “What type of father would do this to his children?”

Elkins posted a photo on Facebook of himself smiling with his children over Easter. The seven kids, in pink-and-white striped sweaters and blue polos, stood on either side of him.

“Had a wonderful time at church for the first time with all my kids what a blessed day,” he wrote.

But four days after posting the Easter picture of his family, he reposted an inspirational prayer from another Facebook page that began, “Dear God, Today I ask You to help me guard my mind and my emotions.”

A photo posted to Facebook shows Elkins, 31, with his children on Easter, two weeks before the shooting. “Happy Easter had a wonderful time at church for the first time with all my kids what a blessed day,” he wrote. Shamar Elkins/Facebook

The prayer also asks for strength to “reject” depression, anger, anxiety and panic.

He had previously struggled with mental health issues, multiple family members told CNN.

Now Elkins and his wife were in the process of divorcing. Pugh filed for a divorce for infidelity, Troy Brown, Elkins’ brother-in-law, said.

“It seemed like he was having a hard time,” Brown said.

The woman who raised Elkins, but was not his biological mother, told The New York Times he tried to take his own life in February.

Elkins, who was in the Louisiana Army National Guard as a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist, had recently stayed at the local VA hospital to get treatment for mental health issues, Brown’s cousin Crystal Brown-Page told CNN.

He came home “happy,” Brown said. “He loved his kids.”

Everything had felt like it was falling apart for Elkins, Brown said.

A photo shows Shamar Elkins, whom the Shreveport Police Department says is “the individual responsible for this heinous act” in which eight children were shot and killed. Shreveport Police Department

“I would constantly talk to my brother-in-law. ‘Let’s sit outside. Let’s play dominoes. Let’s play cards. Let’s go for a walk,’” Brown said.

Brown asked if Elkins needed to go back to the hospital, but Elkins allegedly told him he was OK.

“I’m just gonna deal with it,” Brown recalled him saying.

“I wish he went ahead and got the help,” Brown said.

Elkins and Pugh were supposed to go to court Monday to sign the divorce papers, Brown-Page said. Pugh had considered leaving Elkins before they were married, The New York Times reported.

He had told Pugh, The New York Times reported, he would kill her, their kids and hi:”::mself if she did.

Brown, Elkins’ brother-in-law, said his daughter, the 12-year-old who jumped from the roof, just had some scratches from Sunday’s attack. His wife, Pugh’s sister, fractured bones from falling off the roof. But his son died in the massacre.

“I’m never gonna get to throw the football with him again,” Brown said in tears.

“These were eight babies, precious babies, babies that I took care of, helped take care of, helped raise daily, on a daily basis,” Brown said. “I’ve lost eight parts of me, because I loved each and every of them like they were my own and I took care of them like they were my own.”

Mar’Kaydon Pugh died in Sunday’s mass shooting. From Social Media

The Cruel Psychology Behind the “Farewell Party”

Criminal psychology experts suggest that the act of playing with victims before an attack is often a sign of a calculated killer who seeks absolute control over their targets’ fates. Elkins may have viewed letting the children play happily as a final “mercy” before releasing them from a world he perceived as full of betrayal and suffering.

This action did not stem from love, but from a morbid sense of possessiveness. He wanted the children to belong to him entirely, even in death. The neighbor’s camera did not just record simple play; it recorded the moment a killer was enjoying the power of life and death in his hands, watching the lives he was about to extinguish.

A Legacy of Pain

As the city of Shreveport prepares funerals for the eight innocent children, that video of them playing has become haunting evidence of the brutality of domestic violence. The children laughed and trusted their father until their final breaths.

Mr. Montgomery and other residents on West 79th Street now look at the empty yard and remember not only the laughter that has been silenced but also the image of that father—the man who wore a mask of peace to hide the demon waiting to erupt within. While the call “Prayers for them” echoes throughout the community, the haunting memory of those 12 hours before the massacre will remain forever in the minds of those left behind.