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An estranged boyfriend shot and killed a 27-year-old mother and her two young children inside their Lexington County home before turning the gun on himself, even as one of his own friends stayed on the phone with 911 trying to head off the attack, authorities said.

Amanda Hartley Peake was found shot in her bed at the family's home on Farm Chase Drive in the Red Bank community, according to the Lexington County Sheriff's Department. Her son, Cameron, 9, and daughter, Sarah, 6, were shot in the bedroom they shared. The killings happened around 10 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

Chancey Foy Smith, 32, of Lexington, was found dead on the bedroom floor with a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun nearby, Sheriff James Metts said. All four had been shot in the head. Smith and Peake had dated since December and broke up during a trip to Daytona Beach earlier that month, investigators said.

The warning to authorities came from one of Smith's friends. Metts said Smith sent the friend a text that night saying he was headed to Peake's house and that "if I don't get the answers I'm looking for," something bad would happen. The friend drove to Smith's home, found him drinking and loading a gun, then left and called 911. Staying on the line, the friend followed Smith to the address and gave it to dispatchers.

Deputies reached the house within minutes but arrived just after the shooting, the sheriff said. The friend reported hearing gunshots from inside the home while help was still on the way. Peake and her daughter died at the scene, and Cameron died on the way to a hospital.

Metts said investigators believe Smith let himself in with a key and that the children were awake. Sarah was in her pajamas. Cameron was dressed and lying in what the sheriff described as a defensive position. "The boy was the only one who knew what was happening, and knew the shot was coming," Metts said.

Peake was the widow of Matthew Peake, a Fairfield County sheriff's deputy and the father of both children, who died in a house fire in Winnsboro in 2007. Smith was not related to the children. The Lexington County coroner's office ruled the deaths a triple homicide and suicide.