ARIZONA, USA (AP) — Police seized and returned three guns in November from a man who was arrested last week on suspicion of killing his wife, two of their young daughters and another man, a department spokesman said yesterday.

Sgt Tommy Thompson said that officers initially responded to 30-year-old Austin Smith’s Phoenix home on November 21 after a neighbour reported he had a gun and was yelling that people were trying to kill him.

Arriving officers at the time referred him to an urgent psychiatric centre and took three guns from the home.

But Thompson said the law required the police department to return the guns about a week later when he asked for them back and no outstanding warrants were found.

On Thursday night, 29-year-old Dasia Patterson and five-year-old Nasha Smith died from gunshot wounds, and seven-year-old Mayan Smith died from blunt trauma. The couple’s three-year-old daughter was uninjured.

Police initially said that Smith thought that the man who was killed was romantically involved with his wife, but a probable cause statement later filed in court said the suspect thought it was his brother who was having an affair with her. The victim, 46-year-old Ron Freeman described as a family friend, told Smith “he was crazy” before Smith killed him at an apartment complex elsewhere in the city.

Smith was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault. Bail was set at $2 million.

Smith’s case was referred to the Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office, but court records do not list a specific attorney. A spokesman for the public defender’s office did not immediately return a request seeking comment or contact with the lawyer assigned to case.

An initial court appearance was tentatively scheduled for Thursday.

Officers with a warrant searched the car Smith was driving and found a 9mm handgun, a .45 calibre handgun and a .223 caliber rifle they believe were used in the shootings, according to the probable cause statement. It wasn’t immediately known if those were the same weapons seized in November.