Christopher P. Stokes, identified by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is accused or murdering five family members

A Milwaukee man slaughtered five members of his own family including a 14-year-old - but spared a toddler at the home - and called the cops to turn himself in.

Distraught friends, family and neighbors gathered outside the house in the 2800 block of North 12th Street, Milwaukee, where the mass shooting occurred Monday.

Some sobbed while one woman collapsed into a loved one's arms, while police say 'fights' broke out in the volatile crowd.

Cops received a 911 call from a man at 10.30am, who told them his family was dead, Chief Alfonso Morales said during a brief news conference.

The gunman was later identified as Christopher P. Stokes, 43.

When officers arrived, they found the victims dead inside in what appeared to be a domestic shooting. The identities of the victims have not been revealed, but authorities said they range in age from 14-years-old to 41-years-old.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Mayor Tom Barrett said an infant was also found inside the home and taken to a local hospital for a medical evaluations.

The child, who is believed to be 3-years-old, appeared to have been spared in the mass shooting.

'I think that child is fine. The loss of life is something I take very seriously, and this is obviously a horrific incident in our city,' said Barrett.

Hundreds of residents visited the crime scene while police investigated and distressed family members mourned outside

The Milwaukee Police Department revealed five people between the ages of 14 and 41 were shot dead by a man on Monday

He added that the crime scene sat in a lower income neighborhood and residents in the area were under great stress in the North Division neighborhood.

'The living conditions here-this is obviously a poor neighborhood and I don’t know how many people lived in this house,' he said.

'I don’t know if there was more than one family. But again, this is a stressful period and we’ll have to wait and see exactly what happened here.'

North Division has a median household income of $40,036 compared to the United State's $60,293 figure, according to the US Census.

Poverty in the area sits at 26 percent, which is over half the national number of people in poverty.

Morales said investigators recovered a weapon and believe Stokes acted alone, adding that that there's no threat to the public.

He has been taken into custody. A motive has not been revealed.

'Understand, this is a very tragic event,' said Morales.

Stokes has accumulated a lengthy criminal record in Milwaukee County that goes as far back as 1997.

He also has domestic violence convictions involving at least two separate women starting in 2002.

Online court records show he was convicted in 2002 of misdemeanor battery. He was sentenced to probation, ordered to attend domestic abuse counseling and prohibited from possessing firearms.

He pleaded guilty in 2007 to felony battery, felony bail jumping and felony intimidation of a witness.

He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, prohibited from possessing firearms and ordered to complete a batterers' intervention course.

Stokes (pictured) is reported to have a history of violence

Five years later, in 2012, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery with a domestic abuse modifier, and drew 18 months in prison with another gun ban.

In 2017, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct and was sentenced to a month in jail with work-release privileges.

Due to a domestic violence conviction, Stokes has been banned from owning guns, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

The state Department of Workforce Development filed a warrant against him in 2016 seeking $13,304 in unemployment compensation that still hasn't been paid.

The online records don't offer any further details. DWD spokesman Ben Jedd said such cases are confidential under state law.

The Milwaukee Police Department did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com for further comments.

The few hundred residents who crowded the crime scene were described as 'volatile.'

Distressed relatives cried while others comforted them, fights broke out, verbal arguments were had and paramedics treated a shocked family member.

Several people who approached the crime scene were not involved, but came to see the large police presence and the tragic scene unfolding outside.

A nearby intersection became congested and blocked as more people huddled towards the neighborhood.

Police described the crowd of people as 'volatile' as tensions ran high after the tragic incident

Fights reportedly broke out among the crowd as tensions ran high and emotions spilled out into the street

Director of the Office of Violence Prevention Reggie Moore was at the scene and said he believed two or three victims were teenagers.

'It’s important that we support each other as a community. This is a trying time for a number of reasons,' he said.

Family and friends of the victims have flooded Facebook with condolences and prayers.

'I am so sorry for your great loss,' one person wrote. 'I pray that God eases the pain with comfort and peace.'

Another said: 'I’m praying for you and your family & I love pray that they get justice.'

A woman who appeared to know the victims said: 'I'm hurt, I'm sad,I 'm heartbroken... Never in a million years I would have thought something this tragic would involve the ones I loved....They didn't deserve this at all.'

'Never in a million years I would have thought something this tragic would involve the ones I loved,' said one woman who knew the victims

Another woman shared a heartbreaking tribute to the victims

Another woman wrote 'Rest in Heaven to my beautiful young cousins' and shared touching photos of the victims.

The attack is the second mass shooting in Milwaukee this year.

Molson Coors brewery worker Anthony Ferrill gunned down five co-workers on February 26 before turning his gun on himself. His motive remains unknown.

White supremacist Wade Michael Page killed seven people at a Sikh temple in suburban Oak Creek before a police officer killed him in a firefight in 2012.

That incident is the worst mass shooting in the Milwaukee area since 2005, when Terry Michael Ratzmann killed seven fellow congregants at the Living Church of God in suburban Brookfield before killing himself.

Prosecutors never determined an exact motive, although they said he blamed the church for his depression and financial problems.