A Louisiana woman recovering in the hospital after the weekend rampage that killed eight children and rocked Shreveport was a dedicated mother to her two young sons and daughter, who were fatally shot by their father, the woman’s cousin said Tuesday.

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The cousin said Christina Snow was one of the two women shot Sunday morning by Shamar Elkins, 31.

“All she worked for was her kids, and all she talked about was her kids,” Jamarckus Snow told NBC News on Tuesday. “It’s devastating.”

Christina Snow and Elkins’ wife, Shaneiqua Pugh, were both injured in the shooting that unfolded across several locations.

Seven of Elkins’ children, as well as a cousin, were killed. Their mothers identified them as 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.

Elkins died after he carjacked a person at gunpoint, according to police. It’s unclear if he died by suicide or was fatally shot by police.

The violence erupted on Harrison Street just before 6 a.m. Sunday when police said Elkins shot a woman. In a call to police dispatch, the woman said her boyfriend had shot her, taken her children and fled, Police Chief Wayne Smith said Monday.

Snow was shot in the face, according to her cousin. He said Snow’s mom told him that the bullet went through her nose and is still lodged in her face.

“Doctors say they didn’t want to do surgery and risk it,” he said.

Snow can talk, but she has memory issues, Jamarckus Snow said, recounting what his cousin’s mother has shared with him.

“One day, she’ll remember they’re dead. I heard yesterday she woke up and was like, ‘I got to get my kids ready for school.’ She’ll lose memory of what happened,” he said. “One day, she’ll know, and the next day, she’s thinking her kids is still there.”

What led up to the shooting is still being investigated.

Elkins, a former National Guardsman, had been arrested in 2019 and convicted of illegal use of a firearm, a conviction that likely prohibited him from legally owning guns. On Tuesday, federal prosecutors arrested a man in connection to the firearm Elkins used in the attack.

Relatives said Elkins had recently sought mental health treatment from the local Veteran Affairs medical center, where he stayed for more than a week.

Jamarckus Snow said he did not know much about his cousin’s relationship with Elkins but recalled seeing him at family gatherings.

“He had come over a couple of occasions, but we never just sat down and talked,” he said. “He would distance himself from people, like he wasn’t the person that would just come out and talk to you. He would sit to himself or he would go sit in the car.”

Jamarckus Snow said Elkins had not attended a family event in years, but he occasionally saw Elkins in the neighborhood. The shooting, he said, came as a shock.

“The times I did see him or I did go by her house or something, he had the kids,” he said. “He spent time with them, he was there for them. I can’t say that he didn’t love his kids because he did. It was unexpected.”

After the shooting on Harrison Street, police said Elkins went to a home in the 300 block of West 79th Street, where Pugh is believed to live just blocks away from Christina Snow. The bodies of seven children were found in the home. The eighth child was found dead on the back roof.

Most of the children had been shot in the head, police spokesperson Christopher Bordelon said. It appears several of them had been sleeping.

Shaneiqua Pugh was also shot in the face and was hospitalized in critical condition, according to police. A teenager suffered non-life-threatening injuries after falling off the roof of a home during the violence, officials said.

Neighbors said the shootings made “no sense.” Freddie Montgomery recalled seeing the children playing in the yard. Elkins and his family had been living in the home for only about six months.

“When we found out what had actually happened over there, it was just, just a shock,” he said.

Mack London, 71, lives on the block but did not hear any gunfire. He said that kind of violence is unheard of in their neighborhood.

“Nothing like this has ever happened on this street,” he said. “It was bad. … I hate that it happened to those kids.”