Seven family members, the youngest just 5 years old, were shot to death in their home near a women's prison, and police said Friday they were seeking at least two men for questioning.

The attack appeared to have been a home invasion, but not random or gang-related, Deputy Police Chief Tim Foley said. He said investigators were considering several possible motives.

Police reached the home shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday after a witness who had dropped off one of the victims at the home saw her being dragged inside and heard gunfire.

Inside, the officers found three children ¡ª ages 5 to 11 ¡ª dead on a bed and the bodies of four adults scattered in the home on the city's east side, police said.

All had been shot in what police described as the city's worst mass killings in decades.

Police Chief Michael Spears released the photo of one suspect Friday morning, Desmond Turner, 28, of Indianapolis, a man with a criminal history that includes time served for pointing a handgun and criminal recklessness. Witnesses told police they saw as many as three or four men running from the back of the home.

The victims spanned three generations of a family.

Flora Albarran, 22, had been running errands with a friend Thursday night before stopping at the house to pick up her 5-year-old son, Luis, about 10 p.m. The boy had spent the evening with his grandmother, Emma Valdez, and other relatives, police said.

When Albarran walked into the home, her friend, who was waiting in the car, saw a light come on and heard Albarran shout: "Don't do that! My child!"

She yelled to her friend not to come in the house, police said a news release. That's when the friend heard gunshots inside and Albarran screaming.

A man holding a long gun stepped on the porch, and the shootings continued inside, the friend told police.

Foley said it appeared the at least one assault rifle was used in the killings.

Authorities identified the victims as Emma Valdez, 46, and her husband, Alberto Covarrubias, 56, and Flora Albarran and her brother Magno Albarran, 29. The children were identified as Luis Albarran, 5; Alberto Covarrubias, 11; and David Covarrubias, 8 or 9.

Dozens of police officers blocked off streets in the neighborhood Thursday and were talking neighbors who watched from nearby yards in a steady rain.

At the home where the family was killed, a wind chime hung in one window and an iron security door stood open as officers passed in and out. There also was no history of police runs to the home apart from one to check on an alarm.

"We haven't seen anything like this in Indianapolis in recent memory," Deputy Mayor Steve Campbell said. "The IPD folks are saying you have to go back 20, 30 years to find anything like this."

Thursday's slayings were the city's worst since King Edward Bell, a laid-off autoworker, killed his estranged wife, mother-in-law and four children in August 1981. Bell, 31, was sentenced to six consecutive 40-year prison terms.

Evan Lewis, whose mother lives next door to the shooting scene, said he was visiting friends who live on the block and went outside when he heard screaming.

Neighbors said the area had declined in recent years and that drug crimes and muggings had become common.

"We have been complaining and complaining," said Sandy Washington, 65, who she had gone to neighborhood meetings to report drugs and prostitution. "Our voices aren't heard."