Andre Gordon Jr. awaiting extradition, court documents reveal new details in Levittown triple murder
LEVITTOWN, Pa. (CBS) – Andre Gordon Jr. is now facing more than a dozen criminal charges in Pennsylvania following the slaying of three family members over the weekend, new court documents show.
A 12-page affidavit from Bucks County court documents notes Gordon, Jr. is charged with murder of the first degree, murder of the second degree and aggravated assault, among other charges. He is also facing charges in New Jersey, where he is currently being held.
"People are hurting, ya know? It's almost like we've become numb to this when we hear it in other places, but now that it's here it's a lot more real," said Josh Ridder, who is the executive director for TreeHouse MidAtlantic, a youth support group in Lower Bucks County.
The organization meets weekly at Restoration Church in Levittown and at several schools in the Pennsbury School District, including the middle school where the 13-year-old victim, Kera Gordon, attended.
"Some of them have friends, were friends of victims or related to victims," Ridder said. The first meeting since the incident will be this Tuesday.
Both TreeHouse and Restoration Church are working to provide care packages to teachers and first responders in Levittown. The church is also offering grief services and counseling.
"I think over the next several weeks, we're going to have a lot more responses to people trying to process what happened," Restoration Church Pastor Ross Manders said. "One of our hopes always has been is we'd be a church in our community, for our community."
Timeline of triple murder
Pennsylvania prosecutors allege Gordon Jr. went to a home on Viewpoint Lane just before 9 a.m. on Saturday. Documents reveal the 26-year-old was "confronted" by his father at the door.
"He originally went to the door to tell him to get off the property, and then immediately tried to lock the door and run and yell for his family to do the same," Jennifer Schorn, the Bucks County District Attorney, said.
Not long after the father closed the door, documents detail Ring Doorbell video showing Gordon Jr. using a rifle to break the front door glass. He then fired inside. Gordon's stepmother, Karen Gordon and 13-year-old sister, Kera Gordon, were both killed. Three other people, including his father and another juvenile, were also inside.
"I believe there were efforts to hunt down other members in the home," Schorn said.
Less than 10 minutes later, the affidavit reads Taylor Daniel – the mother of Gordon Jr.'s children – was on the phone with 911, telling a dispatcher he was at her door with a gun. Court documents then go on to say Daniel's brother told officers he heard his sister and Gordon Jr. yelling at each other before he heard gunshots.
Daniel was pronounced dead on the scene, and police add, that her mother was injured by Gordon Jr. Court paperwork also alleges the couple's two daughters witnessed it all. Schorn added Daniel's brother and mother tried to intervene.
"They were heroes. They fought him with an axe handle and a kitchen knife, and ultimately he fled the residence there," Schorn said.
The investigation took authorities across the river to Trenton, New Jersey. For several hours, police worked through a barricade situation where it was believed Gordon Jr. fled to after carjacking someone in Pennsylvania following the shootings.
He was eventually brought into custody, documents say, some five blocks from the house.
The affidavit further reads "the defendant was able to escape prior to police arrival."
"Oh, I've never seen such overwhelming premeditation. You know he came wearing a mask. He came with an exit strategy. He was not satisfied with this first series of killings," Schorn said. "I believe this was planned, carried out, orchestrated exactly as he planned. Except for, perhaps maybe he would have killed more just get based on the evidence we have thus far."
Schorn would not comment on whether Gordon Jr. had a criminal history nor comment on a motive.
As of Monday afternoon, Gordon Jr. remains locked up in Mercer County awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania. A spokesperson for the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office said his detention hearing is set for Thursday.
