A man accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend and her two children briefly appeared in court Thursday and is being held without bail.

Juan Carlos Orona, 29, drove to a police substation Tuesday evening, with a superficial gunshot wound to his stomach, and confessed that he had killed them, Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Robert Price said at a briefing.

In an apartment on the 5100 block of O’Bannon Drive, near West Sahara Avenue and South Decatur Boulevard, police found the three people — a woman in her 40s, a teenage girl and a boy under 10.

Orona, who kept his head and eyes downcast during an initial appearance hearing, will be held without bail for now, said Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Suzan Baucum.

She also said she found that there was probable cause for his arrest.

Public defender Marissa Pensabene did not make a bail argument for him but asked for the bail hearing to be delayed.

Orona faces three counts of open murder and additional counts of discharging a gun into an occupied structure of vehicle.

A group of tearful people sat in the back of Baucum’s courtroom, watching the hearing. A man in the group said he was from the victims’ family, but declined to comment.

“Unfortunately, domestic violence is always one of our top causal factors of homicide,” Price said. “It’s something we encourage anybody that’s having these types of issues to please reach out for assistance.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.