ZestSync

A Pennsylvania man suspected of killing the mother of his children, his stepmother and his 13-year-old sister Saturday morning is in custody after causing a manhunt in suburban Philadelphia and barricading himself in a home in Trenton, N.J., authorities said Saturday afternoon.

Andre Gordon, 26, allegedly broke into his family members’ homes in Falls Township, Pa., on Saturday morning and attacked them with what police said was an AR-style rifle before fleeing. He carried out a carjacking in a retail parking lot before driving to a home of other family members in Trenton, according to authorities.

The residents of the Trenton home were safely evacuated and were uninjured, while Gordon remained there Saturday afternoon, Trenton Police Detective Lt. Lisette Rios said. Live video from Fox 29 Philadelphia showed SWAT team members helping people down from an upper level of a house.

Advertisement

The rampage prompted a shelter-in-place order for Falls Township, a town of about 34,000 people directly southwest of Trenton in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County. The county’s St. Patrick’s Day parade was shut down, and some stores closed. The shelter-in-place order was lifted at 12:15 p.m.

Before 9 a.m., Gordon allegedly broke into his family’s home in Falls Township, where he killed his stepmother Karen Gordon, 52, and his sister Kera Gordon, 13, Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said at an afternoon news conference.

Three other people, including one minor, were in the home and hid as Gordon searched for them. They were uninjured, Schorn said.

Gordon then broke into the home of Taylor Daniel, 25, with whom he has two children, Schorn said. He shot and killed her with the children present. He bludgeoned her mother with the rifle; she is expected to recover from the injuries, Schorn said.

Advertisement

Gordon arrived in Falls Township driving a stolen vehicle that authorities said he had carjacked in Trenton earlier Saturday. After the killings, he allegedly carjacked a 44-year-old man in a Dollar General parking lot, taking his Honda CR-V. The man was uninjured. The car was found abandoned about 2½ hours later in Trenton, authorities said.

Authorities did not offer theories about a motive for the attack. They were investigating whether Gordon had legally come to possess the rifle, Schorn said.

Gordon was homeless, authorities said. Local police had “minor contacts” with Gordon in the past, “but nothing that would indicate anything like this would happen,” Falls Township Police Chief Nelson Whitney said.

Just before 2 p.m., police remained at the scene at the Trenton home where Gordon was barricaded.

Advertisement

Gun violence against family members and partners is a leading factor in shootings. In more than two-thirds of mass shootings between 2014 and 2019 — which The Washington Post defines as four or more people killed, not including the perpetrator — the shooter killed at least one family member or partner or had a history of domestic violence, Johns Hopkins researchers found. On average, 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner every month, and about two-thirds of women killed by partners are killed with guns, according to the gun-control advocacy group Everytown.

Anumita Kaur contributed to this report.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLuiwMiopWhqYGeBcHySaGhvZ5aWua2%2FjK2msKajnbaxecCcq6KulWLAqbvOrZyrZZmjw6a%2F06KemqyZpLtw