Washington County District Attorney Steve Toprani said he may seek the death penalty against Orlando "Foo" Guarino, who was charged yesterday with three counts of homicide in the deaths of his wife and two young children.

Mr. Guarino, 38, was captured in Canton just outside Washington, Pa., yesterday afternoon after a brief chase in which a state trooper fired a shot at him.

Late Wednesday, a relative found the bodies of Ashley Guarino, 22, and her children, Druex, 2, and Orlando Jr., 11 months, at their home on Third Street in Marianna, Washington County.

Washington County Coroner Tim Warco said yesterday morning that the three appeared to have been asphyxiated, but later said that although none of the bodies contained wounds, he had not made a final ruling on the cause of the deaths. Autopsies were scheduled.

Mr. Guarino has a criminal history that includes assault, drug and firearm charges, and he has spent several years in jail.

Last month, his wife received a three-year protection-from-abuse order against Mr. Guarino after he allegedly threatened to harm their infant son.

Ms. Guarino, a bartender at the Moose Lodge in Washington, had recently left her husband and moved into her own apartment, friends and relatives said. She had filed for the protective order June 19.

"I told her not to be with him," said Steve Maze, Ms. Guarino's father, who called Mr. Guarino a "deadbeat."

According to court records, Ms. Guarino accused her husband of once holding their son out of the door of a moving vehicle, telling her, "You wanna see something crazy?"

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

A week earlier, she said, he had expressed "thoughts of harming his own children."

Judge John DiSalle granted the restraining order and gave Ms. Guarino temporary custody of the children, ordering that any visitation with Mr. Guarino was to be supervised. He was also ordered to attend family counseling sessions with her.

In August 2004, his former live-in girlfriend, Stacey D. Booker, sought and was granted a protective order against Mr. Guarino, accusing him of physically, mentally and emotionally abusing her throughout their four-year relationship.

According to an affidavit, Ms. Booker said that shortly the restraining order was filed, Mr. Guarino told her that "if Ashley ever left and took the kids, he would kidnap them and take Ashley out and take the kids out, and no one would be able to have them."

Mr. Maze had taken 2-year-old Druex out for dinner earlier in the week and bought her shoes. He said his granddaughter was a bright child who loved cartoons; her favorite was "Dora the Explorer."

Ms. Guarino's stepfather, William Wyland of Washington, Pa., went to the Marianna house Wednesday night after being unable to reach Ms. Guarino on her cell phone. He kicked in a door and found the bodies.

"The town is in shock," said bartender Lisa Durila of J&J Hotel and Bar near Marianna, where Ms. Guarino used to work.

The bar owner, Jim Durila, said Mr. Guarino came to the establishment twice on Wednesday. The first time, he was seeking an employee named "Jose," who lived in the bar's adjoining hotel.

He came back later in the day, about 5:30 p.m., and was acting "off the wall," Ms. Durila said.

Mr. Durila said Orlando didn't have much to drink, and kept saying he had to go home to "straighten out his house."

Before his arraignment in Charleroi District Judge Larry W. Hopkins' courtroom last night, Mr. Guarino spoke to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter but neither admitted nor denied guilt, saying, "If you've got four people in a room and three of them are dead, regardless, who's going to get the blame?"

The last time he saw his wife and children was Wednesday morning at breakfast, he said, and he said he remembers little about the time between that breakfast and his arrest.

"I don't even have an answer for it, sincerely, I don't," he said.

State police thought they had Mr. Guarino cornered yesterday morning, when they surrounded a hotel in Somerset Township. But when they entered the room they thought he was in, it was empty.

He was caught about 4 p.m. State police said they had identified several places where he might be, including the West Chestnut Street area of neighboring Washington, and Canton.

State police Capt. Sheldon Epstein said a trooper spotted him along West Chestnut and gave chase. One shot was fired, but Mr. Guarino was not hit, Capt. Epstein said, and he then was arrested without further incident.

Mr. Guarino told the Post-Gazette that as a former drug dealer, his first instinct when confronted by police was to run. He had planned to turn himself in to authorities, but said he wanted to take a shower first.

"I was hoping he'd hit me," Mr. Guarino said of the trooper who fired at him. "I'm miserable right now. I'm going through a lot of emotions right now."

Capt. Epstein said state police were investigating why the trooper used his weapon.

A preliminary hearing for Mr. Guarino is scheduled for Wednesday.