The Saturday holiday to celebrate St. Patrick turns into a nightmare.
A 26-year-old homeless man, Andre Gordon, opened fire and killed three people near Philadelphia, before fleeing in a stolen car and barricading himself in a house in New Jersey with hostages before being arrested while trying to escape .
The alarm was raised around 8.50am when Gordon shot and killed his 13-year-old sister Cara Gordon and stepmother Karen Gordon in Falls Township.
Then, a few blocks away, he struck again, killing the woman with whom he had two children, 25-year-old Taylor Daniel: there were four other people inside the house and Gordon injured only one, his parents' grandmother. children.
He then walked away and, in a parking lot, stopped a man and stole his car.
The police immediately rushed to the scene of the shots and, for safety reasons, canceled the St. Patrick's Day parade and closed all children's parks, at the same time inviting all residents to stay indoors and stay away from windows.
Aboard a gray Honda CRV, Gordon left Pennsylvania and headed to Trenton, New Jersey, the municipality where he lives.
Having abandoned the car, he barricaded himself in a house with some hostages.
Also in this case, according to what the police reported, it involved people he knew, probably family members.
The agents and special teams, including the Swat, immediately surrounded the house ready to intervene to stop the man, described by the police as "armed and extremely dangerous".
After more than an hour of fear and panic the hostages were "successfully evacuated" while Gordon remained barricaded for hours before being arrested while he was trying to escape.
The officers tried to convince him to leave the house and hand himself over peacefully.
“Andre, if you hear us, slowly walk out the front door,” investigators repeated for hours through a bullhorn.
Some officers then heard some noises and went into action, blocking the man while he tried to escape.
The reasons behind the 26-year-old's crazy gesture are not yet clear.
Falls Township police said they had had "contact with the killer in the past, but nothing to suggest such an action."
His criminal record, according to rumors, is clean and the man would never have shown signs of mental imbalance.
It is also unclear how Gordon obtained the AR-15 rifle with which he acted.
The investigation is only in its early stages and it will likely take some time before any conclusions can be reached.
The crime scene is in fact very large and investigators will have to sift through three houses.
The federal authorities will also collaborate in the investigation because the man crossed the border between two states and the law provides for the deployment of government forces in these cases.
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