Man Held in Slayings of Ex-Wife and In-Laws : Violence: Relatives say the suspect may have been angry over their plans to move with the couple’s two children out of the state.

A divorced father of two, whose ex-wife apparently had planned to move to Arizona with the couple’s children, shot her and her parents in their Covina home Monday afternoon, authorities said.

Killed were Suzanne Fontes, 28; retired El Monte Police Officer Charles R. Kelly, 66, and Rachel Kelly, 63.

Shortly after the shootings, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said Richard Fontes, 26, a reserve Army staff sergeant from Fontana, was arrested outside the Pomona recruiting station where he worked, and a handgun and shotgun were seized.

Fontes was booked on three counts of murder and was being held without bail at the Covina City Jail.

Fontes phoned Pomona police shortly after 3 p.m. and told them that he had fired shots at another recruiting station at 984 Badillo E. St. and at a home in the 400 block of Adams Park Drive, both in Covina, said Sheriff’s Deputy Benita Hinojos.

Investigators found bullet holes in the walls of the recruiting office and of the one where he worked--at 1656 Indian Hill Blvd. in Pomona--Hinojos said. Both offices were closed at the time and no one was injured.

Members of the Kelly family said Fontes and his ex-wife and former in-laws had not been on good terms. “They had a hate relationship for years,” said Daniel Herrera, the Kelly’s son-in-law.

The couple divorced more than a year ago, neighbors and family members said. Suzanne Fontes moved in with her parents, who were helping to raise the Fontes’ two children, 9-year-old Stephanie and 2-year-old Cody.

Differences arose between Fontes and his wife over the grandparents’ treatment of the children, family members said.

“He didn’t like us because we were a Christian family,” said Coleen Herrera, Suzanne’s sister. “He thought we babied the kids.”

Family members and neighbors said the Kellys recently bought a home overlooking the Colorado River in Bullhead City, Ariz., and Suzanne Fontes planned to move there with them and the children.

Fontes, who had visitation rights to the children, may have been upset that his former wife planned to take the children so far away, Daniel Herrera said.

Herrera said police told him that Charles Kelly apparently was shot as he was kneeling in the hallway of his home sanding the floor. The Fontes children were at school and day care at the time of the shooting, Herrera said.

The news of the killings spread quickly to nearby El Monte, where Kelly’s former co-workers said they were shocked.

“I just can’t believe it. He’s one of the easiest-going guys I’ve ever met and (was) a superstar detective,” El Monte Police Detective John Fentress said. “He was a cop’s cop.”

Kelly left the Baldwin Park Police Department in 1963 for the El Monte department, Fentress said. Beginning in 1976, Kelly worked robbery cases until he retired in 1984. He had been working part time as a private detective since handing in his badge, Fentress said.

“I just talked to him over the phone about three weeks ago, and he was saying that he was really looking forward to getting out of any kind of work so he could spend more time with this family,” Fentress said.

Times correspondent Andrew LePage contributed to this story.