QUINCY, Pa. (AP) — Hours after authorities began investigating the shooting deaths of three people in a central Pennsylvania home, the man later charged in the case admitted to state police that he’d “messed up.”

The suspect, Kevin Cleeves of Waynesboro, said that in retrospect he never should have gone to the home of his estranged wife’s boyfriend Friday night, even if he was concerned about the welfare of his 4-year-old daughter.

Because there, authorities alleged, he quarreled with his wife and her boyfriend in front of the girl and was told to leave but instead opened fire, shooting to death the two adults as well as the man’s mother. He then fled with the girl 250 miles to neighboring Ohio, where he was arrested and his daughter was recovered safely.