Andre Gordon Jr., the homeless 26-year-old police say killed three members of his family in two locations in Falls Township Saturday, is being held without bail in New Jersey while awaiting extradition back to Bucks County to face first-degree murder charges.
Police say Gordon car-jacked a vehicle in New Jersey, traveled to Bucks County and shot and killed his 52-year-old stepmother, Karen Gordon, and his 13-year-old sister, Kera Gordon, at their home on Viewpoint Lane. He then reportedly went to a home on Edgewood Lane, where he killed Taylor Daniel, the 25-year-old mother of at least one of his children.
The three killings all took place around 9 a.m. Saturday. Police say Gordon then carjacked a Morrisville man as he was putting air into the tire of his Honda CR-V in the Dollar Tree parking lot on Bristol Pike.
He then drove to Trenton where he was eventually apprehended Saturday evening.
Authorities reported that Gordon used a semi-automatic, assault-style rifle that bore no serial number to carry out the shootings and, New Jersey law enforcement officials added, he had “large-capacity” magazines and “hollow-point ammunition.”
The youngest victim, Kera Gordon, was an eighth grader at Boehm Middle School in the Pennsbury School District.
Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn suggested in a Saturday news briefing that it could have been worse.
Three other residents of the Viewpoint Lane home — including Gordon’s father and a juvenile — reportedly hid and were uninjured.
At the Edgewood Lane address, Taylor Daniel’s mother reportedly left her bedroom when she heard a gunshot and began hitting Gordon with a wooden ax handle. Gordon then struck her in the head with the rifle. The mother was treated for a head laceration at the Jefferson Hospital, Torresdale Campus. Daniel’s brother and the brother’s two nieces were also in the house but were uninjured.
Court documents filed on Sunday did not report a motive for the killings.
“The string of violent acts that took place (Saturday), allegedly at the hands of a single armed individual, alarmed and terrorized communities in Bucks and Mercer counties,” said New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin in a Sunday statement. “It is the latest in a horrific litany of illustrations of how illegal guns and assault rifles can empower one aggrieved and disturbed actor to do immense damage and leave a trail of tragedies in their wake.”
About three hours after the carjacking, investigators received information that Gordon had barricaded himself inside a home on Phillips Avenue in Trenton. Though the stolen Honda CR-V was found about a block away and about 60 officers responded to assist, court documents stated that Gordon escaped the house before police arrived.
At about 5 p.m. he was apprehended several blocks away on New York Avenue. He was traveling on foot, having altered his appearance by cutting his hair.
In Pennsylvania, Gordon faces three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder and felony charges of aggravated assault, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, unlawful restraint, robbery of a motor vehicle and theft by unlawful taking.
In New Jersey, Gordon was charged with first-degree carjacking, second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, second-degree possession of an assault firearm, third-degree unlawful possession of a firearm without a serial number, third-degree receiving stolen property, fourth-degree unlawful possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines, and fourth-degree possession of hollow-point ammunition.
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