Community support grows after mass killing of 8 children
By Brenda Teele
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SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA (KTBS) — Support for the community is coming from every level, state, parish, city, and the local school district following a devastating incident involving eight children.
Neighbors say the children were a familiar and active in the neighborhood.
One neighbor shared that they saw the children outside playing just a day before the incident.
Liza Demming, who lives two doors away from where the violence occurred, said their children played together.
“The kids play at my house. They were at San Gabriel for Easter Sunday with my kids, and they play all the time,” Demming said. “My daughter even went to the park with them.”
Demming said she heard gunshots Sunday morning and later saw the covered body of one of the children.
“That baby, that baby laying there on the roof of their home trying to get away?” she said.
Demming lives near the corner of Linwood Avenue and Highway 79, just steps from where the tragedy unfolded.
Local and state leaders are calling for even more to be done to address domestic violence.
Shreveport City Councilwoman Tabitha Taylor emphasized the urgency of the issue.
“One in nine women are domestically abused every nine seconds in this country — every nine seconds. When does it become a priority?” Taylor said.
State Sen. Sam Jenkins said domestic violence must be part of broader justice reform conversations.
“I just really hope that a part of the package that we begin to put together when we start talking about justice, and especially criminal justice, that we begin to look at domestic violence as a part of that package,” Jenkins said.
On Monday, the Caddo Parish School District plans to have counselors available at Summer Grove Elementary and Linwood Charter School to support classmates affected by the tragedy.
Shreveport City Councilmember Grayson Boucher also spoke about the emotional toll on first responders.
“I can only imagine what these police officers and firefighters went in and saw with such a horrific, painful thing to see — if any of them had to go home to their own children. Can you imagine? I bet there are going to be several children held very, very tight tonight,” Boucher said.
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