The deranged Army vet who savagely murdered his seven kids and nephew in Louisiana on Sunday once ominously warned his wife he would kill their entire family if she ever left him.
“I’ll kill you, my kids and myself,” Shamar Elkins, 31, hissed to spouse Shaneiqua Pugh three years ago after she said she was considering filing for divorce, according to the killer’s adoptive mother, who witnessed the comment, to the New York Times.
Shamar Elkins once told his wife he would kill her, himself and their children if she ever divorced him. Facebook/Shaneiqua Elkins Betty Walker said she was in the kitchen cooking when her adopted son made the frightening declaration as he and Pugh were sitting on the couch while their four daughters were playing outside.
Walker said she approached Elkins to voice her disapproval, telling him, “Don’t think like that,” while Pugh dismissed his threat as her husband “just playing.”
The older woman said she told the couple, “Well, don’t play like that.”
This past weekend, Elkins fatally shot his seven children — his four daughters with Pugh: Jayla, 3, Shayla, 5, Kayla, 6, and Layla, 7 — and three kids by girlfriend Christina Snow: Braylon, 5, Khedarrion, 6, and Sariahh, 11.
He also shot dead Mar’Kaydon Pugh, 10, the son of his wife’s sister, Keosha, who also lived at the West 79th Street home in Shreveport where the Sunday morning massacre took place and broke her hip attempting to escape the rampage by jumping off the roof.
He turned his “assault-style” pistol on Pugh and Snow, too, severely wounding both women.
The killings took place at estranged wife Shaneiqua Pugh’s home in Shreveport, La. AFP via Getty Images Elkins — who ended up fatally shooting himself as cops closed in — had been due in divorce court with Pugh the next day.
Walker told the outlet she had raised Elkins as his own and that his biological mother was a teenage crack addict when he was born.
She said she “never thought” her adoptive son would actually “go through killing himself and these kids.”
Walker said Elkins and Pugh had accused each other of infidelity during their marriage and that financial difficulties were the source of much of the other tension in their rocky relationship.
While investigators are still working to determine a motive in Sunday’s slayings, Elkins’ upcoming divorce was clearly rattling his already shaky foundation.
After Pugh told him she wanted a divorce, Elkins made a disturbing call to his biological mother, Mahelia Elkins, and stepdad Marcus Jackson on Easter Sunday to tell them he was considering ending his life and that he was drowning in “dark thoughts.”
Jackson attempted to talk him off the ledge and said he’d get past the difficult time if he could summon the strength to push through.
“Some people don’t come back from their demons,” Elkins grimly replied.
Walker said that in February, Elkins tried to take his own life but that he clammed up when she visited him at the hospital, where Pugh was by his side.
He was later admitted to a Veterans Affairs hospital for a week and a half after he stopped in for a mental-health evaluation.
Elkins had two previous convictions: for driving while intoxicated in 2016 and for the illegal use of weapons in 2019, the outlet said.
In March 2019, a police report detailed that the National Guard vet pulled a 9mm handgun from his waistband and shot at a vehicle five times after a driver pulled a handgun on him — with one of Elkins’ bullets being discovered near a school where children were playing.
The Times reported that a confrontation escalated after a man tried to take Elkins’ marijuana and run away with it.
