Suspect in S.C. murder-suicide released 4 kids before bloodbath, cops say

Officials are investigating after finding the bodies of two males, two females, and two children in a home Tuesday night in Greenwood County, South Carolina.

By Ali Fateh, Niven McCall-Mazza and Henry Austin, NBC News

The main suspect in a "horrific" South Carolina murder-suicide that left six people dead, including two children, released four other children before the slaughter began, police told NBC News late Monday.  
A SWAT team discovered the grisly scene at a Greenville area home, where a man in a 911 call placed just before 6 p.m. had told a police dispatcher he was feeling “edgy” and thinking about hurting himself, Greenwood County Sheriff Tony Davis said at a news briefing.
While sheriff’s deputies were responding to the call, a neighbor called 911 to report that she had heard a shot and that children from the Callison Highway residence had fled to her home. Authorities believe the suspected killer released four children from the house before the bloodbath, sheriff’s spokesman John Long told NBC News.

Treating the incident as a hostage situation, deputies called in a negotiator. But when there was no response from inside the home, a SWAT team entered the home, where the bodies of victims between age nine to 50 were discovered, Davis told reporters. “It’s just a situation that takes your heart,” said Davis, an official with almost 40 years’ experience, who said that he had never been called to a scene with so many victims. “It’s sad, it’s horrific," he added. "Your heart has to go out to all of the family members and everyone involved in some point, not in a law enforcement capacity, but in some point or another we know all these individuals.”It did not initially appear that the dead children were related to the shooter, although Davis said the suspected killer may have been the boyfriend of one of the victims.

“It appears to be a domestic situation,” he said, adding that the “edgy” man had told a police dispatcher that “he was going harm himself and then he hung up the phone.”
A state forensic team will investigate the crime scene,  before investigators all get together try to piece the case together, he said.
NBC News' M. Alex Johnson contributed to this report.