This is what authorities have said about the fatal encounter in New Mexico: It happened on Monday evening, at an Albuquerque home. A 5-year-old boy, 6-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy were all killed.

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A 36-year-old woman, the children’s mother, was in critical condition. Her condition on Wednesday was not immediately known.

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“The city of Albuquerque, we suffered an unimaginable loss,” Mayor Richard Berry told reporters at a news conference. “We lost three of our angels in a senseless and violent act.”

Eden, the police chief, told reporters that authorities were dispatched to the home shortly after 6:30 p.m. Monday after receiving a call about shots fired.

An investigation indicates that a 45-year-old man, later identified as George Daniel Wechsler, apparently forced his way into the home, which police said in a release is his ex-girlfriend’s. The man waited for the mother and three children to arrive at the home, Eden said.

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In the news release that identified Wechsler, police said that he “ambushed the family.”

“According to information we have so far is that the man shot the mom and then the three kids,” Eden said. “We don’t know the particular order at this time. We hope to find that out later.”

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Evidence, he said, also indicates that the mother “fought diligently to protect her children and to get them out of the home safely.”

The suspected offender, Wechsler, was taken to a hospital after the encounter, Eden said. He suffered from a gunshot wound that police said in a release appeared to be self-inflicted and has died.

“We want our community to understand that this affects all of us,” Eden said. “Every single one of us. It affects the family. It affects that entire neighborhood. It affects our first responders, including our fire, our EMS, our Albuquerque ambulance personnel, as well as the staff at the University of New Mexico hospital. It has an affect on each and every one of us.”

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The names of the victims were not immediately released.

Authorities were still investigating the case, trying to piece together what happened, Eden said Tuesday.

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“As I said, the one and only witness to what happened is not in a position to provide us with that information,” he said.

A preliminary investigation found that Wechsler was dating the mother of the children. She had ended the relationship, which was described as short-term, and had asked him not to contact her or the kids, police said.

“The offender did ask the female victim if he could come over to the house to bring the children Christmas presents, and she denied,” officer Fred Duran, a police spokesman, told reporters, according to the Albuquerque Journal. “She said she did not want him in the house, she did not want contact with him. And we want to reiterate very clearly that she has asked this male several times not to contact her and not to come to her house.”

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Berry, the mayor who appeared at a news conference with Eden, called on the community to come together after the fatal shooting and show their children love and support.

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