TRENTON, N.J. (news agencies) — A man suspected of killing three family members in their Philadelphia-area homes Saturday was arrested in New Jersey after evading law enforcement for hours as police mobilized across two states, shutting down a parade and an amusement park and ordering some residents to stay in their homes.
Steve Wilson, police director for the city of Trenton, New Jersey, said the man was found near a house were he was believed to have barricaded himself and was taken into custody. He apparently escaped the perimeter around the home before it was set up, according to Wilson.
Wilson added that he did not believe the suspect was armed at the time. No one else was injured.
The suspect was identified earlier as 26-year-old Andre Gordon Jr. Authorities said they believe 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 in the morning, Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said.
Officials said they couldn’t yet speak to a motive for the attacks. 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.
Police said Gordon was believed to be homeless. It was unclear whether he had an attorney or anyone else who could comment on his behalf.
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 store parking lot, Gordon went to the home in nearby Trenton, authorities said. By midafternoon, officers surrounded the house on a taped-off block, calling to Gordon through a loudspeaker and trying to persuade him to come out.