SHREVEPORT, La. — The man who fatally shot eight children Sunday, seven of them his own, had been hospitalized in recent months for mental health issues, according to family members.

Shamar Elkins, 31, who served in the Louisiana Army National Guard, visited the local Veterans Affairs hospital for a mental health evaluation, stayed there for a week and a half and was released, said Crystal Brown-Page, a cousin of Elkins’s brother-in-law, Troy Brown.