A mother and her three children were allegedly killed by her ex partner after she filed for divorce, it has been reported.
José Valdivia, 31, is believed to have murdered Sabrina Rosario, 29, and three of their four children - Enzie, 3, Zuriel, 5 and Zeth, 11 - before killing himself.
A fourth child, Ezekiel, 9, was seriously injured and is in a critical condition after undergoing emergency surgery, family members said.
The incident happened in San Diego on Saturday.
Jocelyn Rosario has now claimed her sister Sabrina had filed for divorce from José, but it had not been finalised.
She told NBC7 José had been stalking his wife and telling her he had suicidal thoughts.
Jocelyn also alleged that José had sent her photographs of a gun and alcohol, Mail Online reports.
The shooting occurred less than 24 hours after the woman took out a restraining order against her estranged husband, according to The New York Times .
The San Diego Police Department said the shooting occurred in Flintridge Drive in the Paradise Hills neighbourhood of San Diego, California, on Saturday morning.
They received a call at 6.49am on Saturday, but nobody spoke, even though arguing could be heard in the background.
A neighbouring relative then called 911 again to report the arguing and what sounded like a gun being fired within the home.
When officers arrived, nobody answered the door.
Police broke into the property after looking through the window and seeing a child covered in blood.
In the house, they found the five people who had been shot.
Three-year-old Enzie, his mother Sabrina and father José died at the scene, while Zuriel and Zeth died in hospital.
SDPD Lt. Matt Dobbs told reporters that the incident "appears to be a tragic case of domestic violence, murder-suicide."
He said investigators believed that "there was some kind of argument or disagreement and he used a hand gun and shoot his family before turning the gun upon himself."
Police said they had responded to the address earlier in November, when they found the estranged couple arguing over a set of tools.
The man was said to have been asking the woman for the tools, but left when officers arrived.
Police then said that they gave the woman information on how to file a restraining order.
She appeared to have secured the order on Friday and the man knew that she had done so before carrying out the murder-suicide, police added.
Officers said José is the only suspect in the case and they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the shooting.
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