An “extremely dangerous” suspect has been taken into custody in New Jersey after allegedly shooting dead three family members, authorities said, following an hours-long effort to detain him.
Andre Gordon, 26, “surrendered peacefully,” Trenton Police Department spokesperson Lisette Rios said, after a trail of violence that set off shelter-in-place orders in two states.
Authorities said Mr Gordon, who is believed to be homeless, began the day by stealing a vehicle in Trenton before driving some 65km to the northern Philadelphia suburb of Levittown.
There, police said, the suspect killed two people, identified as his 52-year-old stepmother and his 13-year-old sister.
Three others in the house, including a minor, managed to hide “as he went through the house searching for them,” Bucks County, Pennsylvania district attorney Jennifer Schorn said in a briefing.
The suspect then drove to a nearby residence where he broke in before shooting and killing a 25-year-old woman, who Ms Schorn said was the mother of his two children, before attacking her mother. She is expected to recover.
Driving to a nearby discount store, the suspect stole a Honda vehicle from a 44-year-old man before fleeing.
The man was not injured, according to Falls Township, Pennsylvania Sheriff Nelson Whitney.
The suspect then drove across the state line back to Trenton, where police believed he had barricaded himself in a three-story house.
Mr Whitney said the suspect was believed to be armed with an AR-15 style assault rifle and police described him as “extremely dangerous.”
For several hours they appealed to him to surrender.
“Andre, get away from the windows. We know you’re inside, if you’d like to surrender, dial 911 now,” police said over a loudspeaker.
“You’re a young man, you have too much to live for,” he said.
Later Mr Gordon was “located at another location in Trenton,” Lisette Rios said.
Trenton Police Director Steve Wilson said Mr Gordon was uninjured and walking in the street when a patrol officer approached him.
It was unclear if he had ever been in the house where police had believed he was barricaded.
People in that house were “successfully evacuated with no injuries,” Ms Rios said.
Armed SWAT officers were seen using a ladder to climb onto the roof of the porch to help people inside escape through a window.
Because the suspect crossed state lines, federal authorities, including the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were working the case, along with local, county and state police.
