A Louisiana felon was arrested for supplying the gun used by deranged Army vet dad Shamar Elkins to massacre his seven kids and nephew, as federal authorities released the first photo of the bloody weapon.

Charles Ford, 56, of Shreveport, was charged on Tuesday with being a felon in possession of a firearm and making a false statement to federal agents — which prosecutors said was regarding the gun Elkins used to ruthlessly kill the children and seriously wound his wife and girlfriend in a mass shooting Sunday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Louisiana.

When law enforcement officials interviewed the original purchaser of the murder weapon, that person identified Ford as the individual she had given the rifle to in January 2025 while she was in the hospital, according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint obtained by The Post.

Shamar Elkins' rifle in a police handout image.
Shamar Elkins’ rifle is seen in a police handout image.DOJ
Ford, a convicted felon, is not allowed to possess firearms and allegedly lied to ATF agents, claiming he never had the gun, prosecutors said.

The felon — who was convicted of simple robbery in 2000 and pleaded guilty to domestic abuse battery in 2011 — allegedly later admitted to possessing the Mossberg pistol and said he kept it under his truck seat, according to court documents.

Ford told authorities that he noticed the gun was missing around March 9, and suspected Elkins had stolen it from his truck since he was one of the only people to ride in his vehicle, the affidavit continued.

He confronted the National Guard vet about the gun going missing — but Elkins became “offensive” and Ford decided to let it go.

A photo released by prosecutors showed the “assault-style” pistol, which had been tossed into a cardboard box and appeared covered in blood.

Elkins, 31, fatally shot his seven children — his four daughters with his wife, Shaneiqua Pugh: Jayla, 3; Shayla, 5; Kayla, 6; and Layla, 7 — and his three kids by his girlfriend, Christina Snow: Braylon, 5; Khedarrion, 6; and Sariahh, 11.

Collage of a man with seven children and a separate portrait of a boy, with names and ages labeled.
The deranged father massacred eight kids with the rifle he bought Charles Ford, the Louisiana felon arrested by authorities.Facebook/Shamar Elkins
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.

The vet turned his gun on Pugh and Snow, too, severely wounding both women.

Elkins, who was struggling with suicidal thoughts and had previously been admitted to a Veterans Affairs hospital after a mental-health evaluation, shot himself as cops closed in on him.

Shamar Elkins with his seven children: Shayla, Layla, Jayla, Sariahh, Braylon, Kayla, and Khedarrion.
Shamar Elkins with his children L-R Shayla Elkins, 5, Layla Pugh, 7, Jayla Elkins, 3, Sariahh Snow, 11, Braylon Snow, 5, Kayla Pugh, 6, and Khedarrion Snow, 6, in a photo posted to Facebook on June 20, 2023.Facebook/Shamar Elkins
The maniac was set to battle Pugh in divorce court the next day.

He had called his mom, Mahelia Elkins, and stepdad, Marcus Jackson, on Easter Sunday to tell them news of the divorce and that he wanted to kill himself and was drowning in “dark thoughts,” the New York Times reported.

“Words fall short in the face of the acts Shamar Elkins perpetrated in Shreveport on April 19—they are beyond comprehension or description,” US Attorney Zachary A. Keller said in a statement announcing Ford’s arrest.

“Our law enforcement partners are investigating every angle of how this tragedy came to occur, and this case arises from that investigation—in particular, how Elkins secured a firearm that he used to execute his own children,” Keller said.

A man stands near a memorial of balloons and stuffed animals outside a Louisiana house where eight children were killed.
A makeshift memorial with balloons and stuffed animals outside a house where eight children, aged between 1 and 14, were killed in a mass shooting described by authorities as domestic violence, in Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S., April 20, 2026.REUTERS
“Elkins’ death means that our community will never see him face justice. Our hope, as we continue to investigate and prosecute this case alongside our law enforcement partners, is that holding the person whose gun Elkins used to perpetrate the crime accountable will give some small bit of solace to our Shreveport community.”

Ford made his first court appearance on Tuesday and will be held in custody until his Friday court hearing, records show.

He 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, authorities said.