An “extremely dangerous” man, suspected of killing three members of his family on Saturday morning in the northeastern United States, surrendered after several hours of tracking by special police intervention forces. Andre Gordon Jr, 26, “surrendered peacefully” to Trenton, the capital of the state of New Jersey, near New York, local police spokesperson Lisette Rios told AFP.
“He was apprehended unharmed. He was found outside the house” where the police’s special intervention forces, notably SWAT, had deployed a large force, another police official, Steve Wilson, detailed on site. . A little earlier, the police had helped residents escape from the house through a first floor window, in this residential area of Trenton, noted an AFP photographer. “Andre (…) We know you are inside. If you want to turn yourself in, call 911 (the emergency number) now,” the police said over a loudspeaker. “You are a young man, you have your whole life ahead of you,” added the authorities.
The police and the courts have not given any information on the suspect’s motivations.
Andre Gordon Jr, presented as homeless by the authorities, who released his photo, is suspected of a murderous spree in the morning in Levittown, in the great suburbs of Philadelphia, in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania, where he killed three members of his family in two different places. In a first residence, the suspect, armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, “targeted and killed his 52-year-old mother-in-law” and “his 13-year-old sister”, while three other people were hiding, said Bucks County, Pennsylvania prosecutor Jen Schorn during a press briefing.
He then “broke into” a second residence, “where he targeted and killed” a 25-year-old woman, “with whom he had two children,” she said. The prosecutor added that he injured an additional victim by hitting her with his assault rifle. The suspect then committed a carjacking to take a vehicle and fled, before being located in Trenton. The police and the courts have not given any information on the suspect’s motivations.
The event adds to the long list of tragedies involving firearms in the United States, which pay a very heavy price for their spread across the country and the ease with which Americans have access to them. The country has more individual weapons than inhabitants: one adult in three owns at least one weapon and nearly one adult in two lives in a home where there is a weapon. Around 49,000 people died by gunfire in 2021, more than half of which were suicides, compared to 45,000 in 2020, figures without comparison with those of other developed countries.