Kids hide as man shoots 3 relatives dead before NJ standoff, cops say

5:50 p.m. UPDATE: Andre Gordon has been taken into custody after a standoff with police, according to Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora.

🚨Andre Gordon shot three family members Saturday morning

🚨Children hid while he looked for them

🚨He took more family members hostage in Trenton

FALLS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A man shot his stepmother, sister and the mother of his two children in their respective homes before barricading himself in a Trenton home Saturday morning.

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.

Deadly violence starts at home of family

Bucks County District Attorney Jen Schorn said Andre Gordon went to a home on Viewpoint Lane in Falls Township just before 9 a.m. after carjacking a vehicle in Trenton. Gordon shot his stepmother, Karen Gordon, 52,  and 13-year-old sister Kera Gordon at the home, according to Schorn.

Falls police said he was armed with an AR-15 rifle. Three other children in the home were able to hide from Gordon when he went looking for them.

READ ALSO: 3 dead in shootings that sparked lockdown

Second shooting

Gordon then drove to a second house on Viewpoint Lane in Levittown where he fatally shot Taylor Daniel, 25, the mother of his two children. He also hit another woman in the house with the rifle. She was hospitalized.

Three other people also in the house successfully hid from Gordon.

Gordon drove to a Dollar General store on Old Bristol Pike and hijacked a 44-year-old Morrisville man at gunpoint and drove to Trenton. He took several hostages believed to be family at a home on Phillips Avenue in Trenton, according to Schorn.

Schorn would not disclose if Gordon had a history of mental illness or substance abuse. How Gordon came to be in possession of the AR-15 and other weapons he is believed to be carrying is still under investigation.

ALSO READ: Falls Township, PA placed under shelter-in-place order

Businesses closed, parade canceled

CBS Philadelphia reported that police walked several hostages out the door of the home including a child. Two other people were rescued

She referred questions about the hostage situation to Trenton police, who did not respond to New Jersey 101.5's inquiry as of Saturday afternoon.

Falls Township was placed under a shelter-in-place order. Neighboring Middletown ordered the closure of the Oxford Valley Mall and Sesame Place while Target also closed on their own. The mall reopened after the shelter-place was lifted around 1 p.m while Sesame Place remained closed the rest of the day.

Falls police chief Nelson Whitney said the Bucks County St. Patrick's Day parade was canceled out of an abundance of caution. Police went up and down the street and told people who had already arrived for the parade it was canceled and advised them to take shelter, according to the chief.

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