Kansas City, Mo. ? Minutes after he shot four of his children, his girlfriend and his cousin, Hersel M. Isadore Jr. made one last phone call, leaving a message on his sister’s answering machine.

He wanted her to know why.

In a voice that his sister described as clear but sad, Isadore said he didn’t want his family to go through the pain they were suffering. He sounded beaten down and tired, his sister said, but he told her he loved her, he apologized for the killings and said he didn’t mean to hurt anybody.

Seven minutes later, he killed himself.

Aja Isadore, his sister, wanted to play the suicide message at her family’s prayer vigil Sunday night, but cries from the crowd stayed her hand. She said she had wanted to show that her brother was not angry or on drugs or alcohol.

She believes the message shows he was depressed about not giving his family enough, but she respected the crowd’s wish not to hear it at that time.

The message that community leaders want to get out is that people should reach out if they’re hurting. The Christmas season is about more than buying gifts: It’s about loving your family and leaning on each other, said Ron Hunt, a community activist.

“How many of us are living on the edge right now?” he asked. “We can’t be afraid to call for help.”

Aja Isadore knows her brother called too late.

His problems, she said, “weren’t just financial. : It was a higher spiritual plane of power.”

The crowd of people at the vigil – mostly loved ones, friends and neighbors – were stunned that murders of this magnitude could happen at the little house in Kansas City. Always clean and tidy, it was a sanctuary for neighborhood children who often spent time with Isadore and his children playing video games.

Over and over again, family members told the crowd how normal the family was.

Both parents worked full time – Isadore, 35, at a Wal-Mart photo department in Johnson County; his girlfriend and mother of their six children, Shanika King, 32, at Hampton Inn & Suites near the Country Club Plaza. King and Isadore had been together since she was 13 and he was 16.

Every morning King would leave at 5 a.m. to clean at the hotel, said Santaya Wiley, King’s sister. Isadore was a regular guy, she said: “He’s not the bad person everybody is making him out to be.”

At times, the sobs and cries at the vigil were louder than the prayers, especially when the crowd saw Stephone “Boo” King, 16, one of two family members who were not home when his father opened fire. The other was his brother Mikieone, 5.

Stephone King never stood alone. Arms circled him in nonstop hugs.

His cousin, Megan Brown, 20, announced at the vigil that Marquill King, 11, died from his wound at 2:17 p.m. Sunday.

Police had reported Saturday that Dovian King, 8, had survived and Marquill King had been killed. On Sunday they said the nature of Marquill’s injuries had made it difficult for family members to correctly identify him.

After the vigil, Stephone King and his cousin remembered personality traits of the children.

Amya “Me-me” King, 14, attended Nowlin Middle School. She was a diva, he said, in beauty, singing and academics. She loved to play with makeup and hair, sang in her school choir and got into R&B.

Marquill King attended Swinney Elementary School. He was a jokester. He loved football, baseball and rapping. He and Stephone King even made a CD together last year. “They were pretty good together,” said Megan Brown.

Dovian King also attended Swinney Elementary School. He was silly and loved to laugh. His favorite hobby was playing “Fight Night” on Play Station 2. He liked to emulate Bruce Lee.

MyKzee Isadore, 13 months, was a sweet baby that the family adored, Brown said. His 5-year-old brother gave him the nickname “Little Bruce LeRoy.”

Cousin Alisandria G. Davis, 35, was Isadore’s first victim. Her immediate family declined to speak about her publicly.

A Kansas City School District spokeswoman said counselors would be available today at the schools.