Police say a man broke into a home early Tuesday and savagely stabbed his ex-girlfriend and her two young girls.

A Columbus man is charged in an unspeakable act of violence: the murders of a mother and her two young daughters.

Neighbors called police to Erveena Hammonds’ apartment just before 1:30 Tuesday morning.

Officers responded to a sickening scene: 32-year-old Erveena Hammonds, and her daughters, 10-year-old Anaesia Green, and 7-year-old Breya Hammonds, stabbed to death.

"It's such a horrible thing for anybody to do, to anyone especially her and her children, they didn't deserve that," Natasha Hubbard-Taylor, a friend of Hammonds, said.

Paris Cooper was friends with sisters Anaesia and Breya. She says she and Breya were especially close.

"She was like my main best friend because she was so funny and so pretty,” she said.

A school counselor called Paris's mother Deantea Bennett to tell her the horrible news.

"The first thing she said was she was the counselor at Salem (Elementary),” Bennett said. “I stopped her and I said, ‘Please don't tell me that it was those little babies. Please don't tell me that that was who it was.’ It hit me as a mother… just thinking about children watching their mother go through that, or being a mother having to watch your child and you're helpless."

Around Paris's wrist, a keepsake from the friend she lost:

"The bracelet that I have is like a memory of her because she gave it to me as a Christmas present. It says ‘Paris,’ because that's my name. And it says ‘best.’ She has the other part, and hers says ‘friend.’"

Columbus Police charged 35-year-old Wendell Callahan with three counts of murder.

Records obtained by 10TV show this wouldn't be Callahan's first violence against Hammonds.

In October 2006 she called police saying Callahan "grabbed her by her throat, picked her up off the ground with her feet dangling in the air and threw her on the car."

She said he then "threw her on the ground where he began kicking, stomping and punching" her.

Hammonds said she got away by flagging down a passing motorist.

She told police that she thinks he "would have killed her if the Good Samaritan didn't pass by."

"Run if you're in a domestic violence situation. Any day, involving something like that, run,” Hammonds’ cousin Quran Broomfield said.

Police say a man named Curtis Miller discovered the scene while the suspect Wendell Callahan was still there.

He suffered minor stab wounds in a struggle with Callahan, and was treated and released from the hospital.

Callahan was released from the hospital Saturday morning and taken into custody.

He was interviewed by Homicide detectives and taken to the Franklin County Jail.

(EDITORS NOTE: An earlier version of this story stated three children were initially killed. We have updated the copy to reflect two children and their mother were killed.)