Man kills 5 relatives, self at South Carolina home

USPA News - A South Carolina man called 911 on Tuesday, warning that he was thinking of hurting himself, before shooting five relatives to death, including two young children, at a rural home, county officials said on Wednesday. He then turned the weapon on himself.

The incident began at approximately 5:54 p.m. local time on Tuesday when a 911 call was made from a house along a highway in a rural area south of Greenwood, approximately 62 miles (99 kilometers) west of Columbia. The male caller asked for a deputy to respond to his location, stating that he was thinking of hurting himself before disconnecting the line. As officers were en-route to the house, a second 911 call was received from a neighbor who said four children had ran to her house after at least one shot was fired. Greenwood County Sheriff`s Office deputies arrived at the scene a short time later but repeated attempts to make contact with someone inside the house were unsuccessful. After there had been no response or activity for around two hours, a SWAT team forced entry into the residence and discovered the bodies of six people. A law enforcement source identified one of the bodies as suspected 27-year-old gunman Bryan Sweatt, while the others were identified as his 26-year-old girlfriend, the woman`s parents, and two children aged 9 and 11 not believed to be the couple`s. "This is a situation that just takes your heart, it`s sad, it`s horrific. Your heart has to go out to everyone [involved]," Sheriff Tony Davis told reporters. "The state forensic team is on scene to process the crime scene. They also sent us a couple of investigators to assist our investigators so we`re going to do the best we can with what we got." Investigators believe the killings were the result of a domestic situation involving Sweatt, who had a prior record, and his girlfriend. They gave no details about the situation as the investigation was still in its early stages, but a Facebook account belonging to the couple showed Sweatt had become angry after accusing his girlfriend of being unfaithful and not allowing him to see his child. "wtf is going on its all over fb my gurl cheated on me with a sex offender a [explicit] pervert," Sweatt wrote in a post on the social networking website last week. In another message he wrote: "well u see what u done all i ask was to spend time wit my daughter but u wouldnt so now we got court [Wednesday]." In his most recent posts on Monday, Sweatt posted photos and expressed his love for his young daughter, who was not among the victims. "Daddy`s little girl look at her she`s so beautiful I love to death," he wrote, adding in a second post: "[My daughter] is so beautiful and Daddy loves you with all his heart and soul u will always be my number one baby." On his profile page, Sweatt warned others not to "mess" with his child. "I Love My Daughter ... she is my life and my world shes the only one that i care tha world for and tha only one that dont use me or lie to me she is tha love of my life dont let ur mind trigger to ever mess with this little gurl of u will regreat [sic] it."