Eight children were shot and killed in Shreveport, marking the deadliest US mass shooting in nearly two years. The shooter was the father of seven victims, highlighting the increased risk of domestic violence faced by Black women and children.
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On Sunday, eight children were shot and killed in the deadliest US mass shooting in nearly two years. The gunman was the father of seven of the deceased children and the cousin of another.
Three others were shot and injured: the shooter’s wife, with whom he shared four children, the mother of his other three children, and a 13-year-old boy.
These killings follow the recent high-profile killings of two other Black women: Cerina Fairfax, who was killed by her husband, former Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax, and Nancy Metayer, the vice-mayor of Coral Springs, Florida, who was killed by her husband.
These incidents highlight the increased risk of death and injury that women and children face, especially Black women and children, from domestic violence and gun violence.
While domestic and gender-based violence occurs around the world, the ease with which domestic abusers in the US can get their hands on guns means that these already traumatic situations can easily turn deadly. More than half of female homicide victims in the US are killed by a man they know, be it their husband, boyfriend or the father of their children, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On average, more than 2,500 people died in domestic violence incidents between 2020 and 2024, according to a 2026 FBI report. Firearms were used in more than half of those killings, according to a 2023 study from Cambridge University Press.
“Its a part of a larger pattern of violence against women that’s pervasive in our society across race and class. But Black women are at a higher risk of this type of violence for a number of reasons,” said Cheryl Neely, a sociology professor at Oakland Community college in Michigan.
Neely’s research has shown that Black women face a higher risk of being killed, in and outside of the home, than white women. Yet, their deaths are the least likely to spark media attention, widespread outrage and calls for policies that keep guns away from abusers and help women and their children escape danger.
In Shreveport, eight children were shot and killed by their father, making it the deadliest mass shooting in the US in nearly two years.
Black women and children face a higher risk of death and injury from domestic violence, with firearms often involved in these tragic incidents.
More than half of female homicide victims in the US are killed by a current or former male intimate partner, with firearms used in over half of those cases.
The article mentions Cerina Fairfax and Nancy Metayer, both Black women killed by their husbands, highlighting ongoing issues of domestic violence.
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Instead, Neely said, the killings of Black women and their children lead to scrutiny about Black families and poor decision-making around who these women have children with and their choices to stay in relationships with violent men.
“It’s as if it is a normal pattern of existence,” she said. “If they were white we would be talking about gun control and how this man had access to a weapon to destroy these children, not the pathology of the Black family.”
Gunshot wounds are the primary cause of death for children and teenagers in the US since 2020. Older teens are mostly likely to be killed in the neighborhoods they were raised in due to interpersonal conflict and for younger children, these deaths are often the result of domestic violence, according to a 2023 study from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Neither the White House nor Donald Trump has commented on the Shreveport killings. There has also been silence around the killings of Cerina Fairfax and Nancy Metayer, who was an official in Trump’s home state.
Neely says that while this silence is disappointing, it is not surprising, especially as the Trump administration has targeted the funding of gun violence programs that explicitly work to improve the lives of Black Americans.
The White House did not respond to the Guardian request for comment on the mass shooting rampage in Shreveport.