After he shot his way into a home in the small town of Manchester, police say Rick Odell Smith gunned down a great-grandmother, a young couple and three young children. Then he did something that puzzled authorities.

He scooped up one of the children, a 6-year-old girl who was still alive, and carried her to a neighbor’s home. Then he jumped into his white Chevy Lumina and sped off. Police caught up with him hours later and he died in a gunfight with officers.

State Police Lt. Col. Todd Kilby couldn’t explain Smith’s apparent concern for the girl. ‘All I have is that it was a neighbor’ who took her in, he told reporters.

A source said the man told the neighbor to take her to a hospital. The neighbor called police.

The girl, Kassidy Ralston, remained in critical condition at a hospital in Springfield with facial injuries, according to family and a source.

The girl’s great-grandmother, her parents and her younger brothers all died in the rampage. While oficials have not released their names, relatives identified them as Joanne Sinclair, 65, Brittany Luark, 22, her boyfriend Roy Ralston, Nolan Ralston, 5, and Brantley Ralston, 1.

Smith, 43, approached the family’s home southwest of Springfield shortly […]