Suspect arrested after three people killed in Philadelphia shooting
16 March 2024, 21:54
The man was thought to have barricaded himself inside a house in New Jersey.
A man suspected of killing three people in the Philadelphia area has been arrested in New Jersey on Saturday after a stand-off with police.
Police said the man was found near a house in the city of Trenton, were he was believed to have barricaded himself, and was taken into custody.
No-one else was injured.
Three people were killed earlier in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The suspect was identified earlier as 26-year-old Andre Gordon Jr. Authorities said he killed his stepmother, his teenage sister and the mother of his children in shootings that stretched into two homes in eastern Pennsylvania’s Falls Township on Saturday morning, Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said.
While Gordon had had some minor brushes with the law, they were “nothing that would indicate that anything like this would happen”, Falls Township Police Chief Nelson Whitney said at a news conference.
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Police said Gordon was believed to be homeless.
The mayhem forced the cancellation of a St Patrick’s Day parade and shut down a Sesame Street-themed amusement park. Authorities in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County issued a shelter-in-place order for some areas for several hours.
After fleeing in a stolen car, then taking another in a carjacking in a car park, Gordon went to the home in nearby Trenton, authorities said. By mid-afternoon, officers surrounded the house on a taped-off block, calling to Gordon through a loudspeaker and trying to persuade him to come out.
Neighbours gathered by the barricade to watch what was happening. The home’s residents had been taken to safety with no injuries, the Trenton Police Department said.
Ms Schorn said Gordon first broke into a home in the Falls Township community of Levittown and killed his 52-year-old stepmother, Karen Gordon, and his 13-year-old sister, Kera Gordon. Three other occupants, including a 14-year-old, hid as the suspect went through the house, searching for them, the district attorney said.
She said Gordon then drove to another home in Levittown and shot and killed 25-year-old Taylor Daniel, the mother of his two children, who were there. The victim’s mother was bludgeoned with a rifle, Ms Schorn said. Police said the injured woman is expected to recover.
Ms Schorn added that after the shootings, Gordon carjacked a vehicle in a parking lot in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, from a 44-year-old man who was not harmed. From there, officials said, Gordon drove to the home in Trenton.
