KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A man who said he was “tired of being picked on,” shot five people to death Saturday morning, including his long-time girlfriend and three of their children.

He then killed himself.

A fourth child, age 8, also was shot and was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

Police did not immediately release the man’s name. His dead girlfriend was identified by relatives as Shanika King, 32. According to police the dead children were ages 14, 11 and 1.

King’s aunt, Janna Walker, said police were notified after the man called Walker’s sister and said, “I’m tired of being picked on, and I just shot everybody in the house.”

Police found five bodies in the home, located about five miles east of downtown Kansas City. Just a short time earlier, the man had shot and killed a 35-year-old female cousin at another home on East 68th Street.

Grief and shock enveloped the extended families of those who were killed.

“It’s an extraordinary tragedy,” said Wilbert Blackmon, whose niece was the woman killed on 68th Street. “This is like being in the twilight zone.”

Police gave the following account of the events that unfolded Saturday morning:

About 8:30 am, officers were called to the house on East 68th Street. When they arrived, they found the body of a woman. One of the children in the home told officers that a man came over to the house this morning and asked to see his mother. The child said he heard a “pop” but thought it was fireworks. The man then left the house. The child discovered his mother had been shot and went to a neighbor’s house to call police.

Then about 8:45 a.m., a woman called police to say that her son-in-law had called to tell her that he had shot his family. When officers got to the house they found a man believed to be 35 years old dead in the kitchen with a revolver near his body.

The officers found King and her 1-year-old son dead in one of the bedrooms. In another bedroom, they found the body of a daughter believed to be 14 years old. In the basement, officers found the body of one son, age 11, and an 8-year-old son who was still alive.