LABOR SECRETARY LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER LEAVING TRUMP CABINET 3A APPLE CEO TIM COOK STEPPING DOWN LATER THIS YEAR 6A
H
N O L A.C O M
|
T u e s d ay, a p r i l 21, 2026
$2.00X
Gunman wrote of troubles Records show he had history of violence before deadly rampage in Shreveport
BY JAMES FINN and JUSTIN O’CONNOR Staff writers
STAFF PHOTOS By CHRIS GRANGER
Crews walk alongside the Artemis III core stage as it is slowly rolled out of the Michoud Assembly Facility on Monday.
THE JOURNEY TO SPACE
Artemis III rocket heads out from New Orleans BY WILLIE SWETT Staff writer
NASA employee Chandler Scheuermann had the Artemis II astronauts on his mind from “liftoff to splashdown” of their 10-day mission around the moon earlier this month. But he was paying special attention to the first eight minutes. Scheuermann is a program manager at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where NASA built the Artemis II rocket’s core stage that powered the astronauts into space on April 1. Takeoff — the first eight minutes after the countdown clock hits zero — is when the core stage gets put to the test. By all accounts, it was a success. “It’s just pure excitement, adrenaline. I can’t imagine how the astronauts must feel because watching it on TV and watching it from the Cape is enough to make me sweat,” Scheueurmann said of the launch.
In the weeks leading up to the execution-style, fatal shootings of his seven children, Shamar Elkins brooded on social media about troubles in his marriage and asked God for help. He shared a graphic on Facebook on March 8, the text asking fathers if they would consider having children again if they could do so with different women. “Hell yeah I would,” Elkins captioned it. Days later, he asked God to “help me guard my mind and my emotions.” But in the wee hours of Sunday morning, Elkins unleashed a tirade of violence across Shreveport that stunned north Louisiana’s largest city. Before the sun rose, police say he shot and wounded two women, the mothers of his children, before killing eight children — seven of them his own, one his nephew — at two homes blocks apart. Elkins then carjacked a red Kia SUV and led officers on a chase over the Red River, into Bossier Parish and to the Bossier City home of a man who had mentored Elkins in the Louisiana National Guard. The chase ended outside the man’s house about 7 a.m., with gunfire and Elkins’ death. The slain children, police said, ranged from 3 to almost 11 years old. Some died as they slept. Those who died were Jayla Elkins, 3; Shayla Elkins, 5; Kayla Pugh, 6; Layla Pugh, 7; Markaydon Pugh, 10; Sariahh Snow, 11; Khedarrion Snow, 6; and Braylon Snow, 5.
ä See SHOOTING, page 7A
Contractors and NASA employees are dwarfed by the Artemis III core stage. “The moment they opened those doors and I saw some smiles getting off the capsule, you can certainly relax.” NASA is now readying plans for the launch of Artemis III, the next mission on the space agency’s calendar in preparation for a potential moon landing in 2028. On Monday, Scheurmann and hundreds of other NASA employees at
Michoud gathered to watch the rocket they built for that mission begin its long journey from Louisiana to a Florida launch pad. Artemis III, scheduled for next year, will launch astronauts into low Earth orbit where they will test out the docking capabilities of at least one of the two lunar landers from Elon
ä See ROCKET, page 5A
STAFF PHOTO By JILL PICKETT
Stuffed animals and other items sit outside of a house on West 79th Street in Shreveport that is connected to Sunday’s mass shooting.
Vote to cut judges spares Civil Court
Lagasse to open 2 new restaurants in N.O. hotel
BY MATT BRUCE
Emeril Lagasse has two new restaurants in the works for downtown New Orleans, including one with a name that may be familiar to local diners and a winning track record in Las Vegas. The celebrity chef’s company, the Emeril Group, has partnered with the forthcoming Fairmont Hotel in downtown New Orleans to open a second location of Delmonico Steakhouse. That hotel, which brings the Fairmont back to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina, is taking shape in a transformed office tower at 1010 Common St.
BY IAN McNULTY Staff writer
Staff writer
Louisiana senators approved a revised measure to cut the number of judges in New Orleans after the bill’s author agreed to keep all 14 judges on the Orleans Parish Civil District Court bench. Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, made the concession as he presented an amendment to his Senate Bill 217 on the floor Monday afternoon. It’s part of a slew of bills moving through the Legislature to shrink
ä See JUDGES, page 5A
WEATHER HIGH 81 LOW 66 PAGE 6B
IMAGE PROVIDED By THE EMERIL GROUP
A rendering shows a dining room view of the forthcoming Delmonico Steakhouse from the Emeril Group at the Fairmont Hotel in New Orleans.
Business ......................6A Commentary ................5B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
When it opens in the fall, Delmonico Steakhouse will be a centerpiece of its culinary offerings, along with a second concept from the Emeril Group, called The Café by Emeril, a more casual spot serving breakfast and lunch. Lagasse’s first Delmonico SteakLagasse house in Las Vegas is in the Venetian resort. It opened there in 1999, the same year the Venetian debuted. It made a splash as the chef’s modern take on the grand American
ä See EMERIL, page 7A
13TH yEAR, NO. 252