Authorities said Shamar Elkins, 31, killed eight children at a home in Shreveport

Shamar Elkins.Credit : Shamar Elkins/Facebook

The first 911 call came in just before 6 a.m. on Sunday, April 19.

When officers responded to the 300 block of West 79th Street in Shreveport, they made a gruesome discovery.

Eight children were found dead in and around the rental home.

“There’s blood and bodies everywhere,” Shreveport Corporal Christopher Bordelon tells PEOPLE. “Some were shot in the bed, some were shot trying to get away.”

Authorities said 31-year-old Shamar Elkins — the father of seven of the children who ranged in age from three to 11 – was the killer.

“I think he just had it in his mind he was going to kill everybody in the house,” he adds. “I don’t think there was much thought processes to order. I don’t know that he necessarily had a plan other than just to kill everybody.”

The house where a mass shooting took place is seen in Shreveport, Louisiana.Gianrigo MARLETTA / AFP via Getty

“We believe he began basically killing kids down on the first floor, and that others tried to escape out a window that was on the second floor that went on top of a garage,” says Bordelon.

Also wounded in the attack was Shamar’s wife, per the Associated Press.

While officers were at the 79th Street address, they were notified that another shooting had occurred a few blocks away, on Harrison Street “where he had also shot another female.”

Authorities told NBC the other woman is believed to be his girlfriend.

“We do believe that [Harrison Street] shooting was the first one,” says Bordelon.

According to Bordelon, Elkins, who served in the Louisiana Army National Guard, took three of his children from that home to the West 79th Street address.

“He forced them into the car and then brought them to West 79th and actually executed them there,” he says.

Bordelon says investigators believe two guns were used in the mass shooting. “We’re still working on ballistics,” he says. “We know that he used an assault style pistol. That has been recovered and there was also a handgun recovered. We are working to determine who he shot with what.”

After the shooting, Elkins then carjacked a vehicle, and died following a car chase that ended in Bossier City. It remains unclear whether he was shot by police or died by suicide.

“I’ve been doing this for 16 years, and a lot of times people want to know why individuals commit acts of violence. And the thing I have found is that it’s not possible to use logic to explain the illogical,” says Bordelon. “You’re never going to be able to understand the thoughts of a crazy person. I don’t know that we’re ever going get to a point where anybody says they understand why he did it. It’s the worst thing we’ve ever experienced in this city.”

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.