A manhunt led the police to Trenton, N.J., where the gunman was taken into custody Saturday evening.
Three people were fatally shot on Saturday morning at two separate residences in Falls Township in Pennsylvania, according to the authorities, who said the gunman fled and was tracked to Trenton, N.J., where he eventually surrendered.
The chain of events, which started around 9 a.m., set off a dramatic two-state manhunt as the police searched for the gunman, identified by the authorities as Andre Gordon, 26, and culminated with officers swarming a house in Trenton, about 20 minutes away from where the shootings occurred.
As a SWAT team surrounded the house where Mr. Gordon was believed to be, law enforcement authorities negotiated with him, said Christopher Clark, operations lieutenant at the Falls Township Police Department.
At some point, Mr. Gordon left the house and he was later arrested on a nearby street, said a Trenton Police Department spokeswoman, Detective Lt. Lisette Rios. It was not immediately clear how he left the home undetected.
The residents in the home were successfully evacuated with no injuries, Lt. Rios said.
Mr. Gordon drove a stolen vehicle and killed his 52-year-old stepmother, Karen Gordon, and 13-year-old sister, Kera Gordon, in Levittown, Pa., Jennifer Schorn, the Bucks County, Pa., district attorney, said at a news conference.
There were three other people, including a 14-year-old, in the home who hid as Mr. Gordon searched for them, she said.
Mr. Gordon then drove to a second nearby residence where he killed Taylor Daniel, a 25-year-old woman with whom he had two children, Ms. Schorn said.
Four other people were in that home. One of them was Ms. Daniel’s mother, whom Mr. Gordon bludgeoned with an assault rifle. She was taken to a hospital and is expected to recover, Ms. Schorn said.
Mr. Gordon then fled to a Dollar General parking lot where he stole a car from a 44-year-old man who was uninjured, the authorities said.
During the manhunt, the police warned that Mr. Gordon was armed with an assault rifle and was believed to be in possession of other weapons.
A shelter-in-place directive that had been in place in Falls Township was lifted. The authorities in neighboring townships had directed Sesame Place, a theme park in Bucks County, Pa., to close as a precaution and other shops followed suit on Saturday.
The Bucks County St. Patrick’s Day Parade was scheduled to take place on Saturday but it was halted in response to the shooting.
Officials said at a news conference on Saturday that they were in contact with parade organizers and told them the parade needed to be shut down. Police officers also went “up and down the roadway,” warning people to return to their homes, officials said.
Parade organizers on social media said that “regrettably the parade was canceled due to a township emergency.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of today’s tragedies,” organizers added.
Rebecca Carballo and Emmett Lindner contributed to this report.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
