COLUMBIA, S.C. >> A former soldier shot and killed three children as they slept in their South Carolina home Tuesday night while their mother frantically sought help, authorities said. The ex-soldier then killed himself.

Charles Slacks Jr. also killed an Army soldier who worked with the children’s mother and happened to be at the home, Sumter Police Chief Russell Roark said Wednesday.

Slacks and the woman were divorced, but he still had a key to the home in Sumter and let himself in around 10 p.m. Tuesday, Roark said.

Slacks shot the co-worker in the backyard as the mother tried to stop him, pushed past her to go upstairs and shot the children, ages 5, 6 and 11, in their beds, the police chief said.

The mother’s cellphone was upstairs charging, so she ran to see if her wounded co-worker had a phone. She heard the gunshots and saw her ex-husband at the top of the stairs, where he shot himself, Roark said.

— The Associated Press