Charles Ford, a 56-year-old felon, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly helping the 31-year-old Shreveport father, who reportedly killed eight children, acquire a firearm.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana announced:
On April 21, 2026, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana charged Charles Ford, a 56-year-old Shreveport resident, by criminal complaint with being a felon in possession of a firearm and making a false statement to federal agents, with the firearm and false statement charges relating to a firearm that Shamar Elkins used to perpetrate his April 19 mass shooting. Ford faces up to 15 years in federal prison for the felon-in-possession charge and up to five years in federal prison for the false statement charge.
The Office added:
When law enforcement interviewed the original purchaser, that person identified Ford as the person to whom she’d given it. Ford, a convicted felon not permitted to possess firearms, initially lied to ATF agents about possessing the firearm, claiming he never did. Ford later admitted that he did possess the firearm, claiming that he kept the firearm under his seat. Ford further admitted to believing that Elkins took possession of the firearm.
Breitbart News reported that the 31-year-old gunman who allegedly killed seven of his own children and a cousin was given probation for a gun charge in a 2019 plea deal.
KTBS reported that the gunman “was arrested in March 2019 on a charge of illegal use of weapons and carrying a firearm on school property.” The incident for which he was arrested “took place less than 300 feet from the fence line at Caddo Magnet,” where he allegedly “fired in the direction of the school while children were playing outside.”
KUTV noted that in October 2019, the gunman “pleaded guilty to the illegal weapons charge and was placed on 18 months’ probation; the firearm charge was dismissed.”
NBC News pointed out that “Shreveport Police spokesman Christopher Bordelon said Elkins was likely prohibited from legally owning firearms because of that conviction.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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