State police have captured a suspect in the killings of a woman and her two children.

Orlando M. Guarino was arrested about 4 p.m. in Canton, just west of Washington, Pa., after a foot chase in which a trooper fired a shot at him but missed.

Troopers found him on railroad tracks behind the Pizza Hut on West Chestnut Street, near a busy commercial strip off Interstate 70 and Route 40. They said they believe he was going to hijack a car to make a getaway.

Mr. Guarino was being held at the state police barracks in Washington pending his arraignment tonight before Charleroi District Judge Larry Hopkins.

Troopers had thought Mr. Guarino was at the Avalon Motor Inn in Eighty Four, but they left this morning after bursting into a room there and finding it empty.

Mr. Guarino, 38, is charged with three counts of first-degree homicide. Washington County District Attorney Steve Toprani said his office is considering whether to seek the death penalty in the case.

Mr. Guarino is charged in the deaths of his wife, Ashley, 22, and two children, Druex, 2, and Orlando Jr., 11 months.

The three bodies were found late last night at the Guarino home at 405 Third St.

The three victims had no apparent wounds on their bodies, according to State Police spokeswoman Trooper Robin Mungo.

The Washington County Coroner has not determined a cause of death.

Mr. Guarino, whose arrest record stretches back at least to 1994 and includes convictions for drugs and violent crimes, was last seen in a white 1994 GMC pickup, believed to be headed to New Jersey, where police said he has relatives.

But about 8:45 this morning, state police surrounded the Avalon Motor Inn just off Interstate 70 at the Dunningsville exit where a white pickup was found.

Trooper Mungo said at that time that troopers had reason to believe that Mr. Guarino was in the motel. But shortly before noon, she said officers could not find him after searching the room he was suspected of being in.

Ms. Guarino's father, Steve Maze, of Washington, said he was at his daughter's home this morning. His older daughter, Brandy, told him her stepfather broke into the house late last night and found the bodies.

Mr. Maze, 49, said his daughter had secured a protection from abuse order against her husband. He said the couple had been together for a few years and that problems began in the past few months.

Mr. Maze said Mr. Guarino worked in landscaping and odd jobs. He said he had gone fishing with him and Mr. Guarino would say he was a "gangster."

He said, 'I'm a gangster and nobody can stop me,'" Mr. Maze recounted.

His daughter worked as a bartender at a Washington bar, he said. His granddaugher had just started walking. He bought her a new pair of shoes when he last saw her two days ago.

"I hope they get him," Mr. Maze said of the suspect.

There are a number of protection-from-abuse orders filed against Mr. Guarino, a New Jersey native.

They begin in August 2004, when a former girlfriend sought and was granted a PFA because, she said, ". . . everytime I pick up the boys from him, I'm threatened by Orlando Guarino and the things he could do to me..."

The woman has two sons, who were 13 and 10 at the time. Mr. Guarino had visitation rights with the children, but the order does not explain why.

The woman also wrote that Mr. Guarino routinely had physically, mentally and emotionally abused her. Once, she said, he came home intoxicated and punched her, resulting in three plates, two pins and nine screws being used to repair her face.

In 2003, she said she threatened to call the police because of his behavior, and "he then threw me down on the bed and started choking me. He choked me so tight, I couldn't breathe."

Shortly after being granted the temporary PFA by Washington County Judge Mark Mascara, the woman withdrew it.

Mr. Guarino has a criminal record in Pennsylvania dating to 1994. Most of his arrests and convictions stemmed from drug charges and assaults. He was charged in 1994 with carrying a firearm without a license, and records show he spent several years in jail as a result of the crimes.

By 2005, Orlando was married to Ashley, who took out a PFA against him on June 19.

She claimed that Mr. Guarino found her drinking at a tavern in Marianna and that as they drove home, he said, "You wanna see something crazy?"

She said as they drove along, he held their 11-month-old, strapped in his car seat, out of the vehicle and over the road.

When they got home, she said, he carried the baby, still in his car seat, on one hip into the house while carrying a butcher knife in the other hand. He told her that if she called the police, he would "do the baby."

"He had my phone and my keys. There was nothing I could do. I stared at the floor and just prayed to God. He finally put the baby down and it was over," she said.

A 3-year restraining order was granted by Judge John DiSalle, granting her temporary custody and ordering that any visitation with Mr. Guarino was to be supervised on Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.