Law enforcement officials decked out in tactical gear spent hours surrounding a home on Phillips Avenue in Trenton on Saturday, attempting to force homicide suspect Andre Gordon Jr., 26, out into their custody.
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What wasn’t entirely known at the time was that Gordon was just yards away from the large perimeter police that had been established in New Jersey’s capital city.
LevittownNow.com spoke with law enforcement, government officials, neighbors, and reviewed available records to piece together an account of what led up to the capture of Gordon.
After killing his stepmother, teenage sister, the mother of his children, and committing a carjacking and an assault, Gordon fled from Falls Township back into Trenton, a place where he had family ties and had been staying at times while he was homeless.
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Police located the Honda CRV he carjacked to escape Pennsylvania in the 100 block of Miller Avenue, which is near Capital Health Regional Medical Center (the old Helene Fuld Hospital), and began a manhunt late Saturday morning.
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Knowing a nearby home on Phillips Avenue was where Gordon had stayed in the past, officers rushed to that location. According to New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office, police confirmed he had been inside.
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More officers from Trenton, the New Jersey State Police, the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office, and numerous surrounding towns and colleges flooded the city streets and set up a tight perimeter.
Commanders called for 60 officers from the region Mercer County Rapid Response Partnership, the area’s tactical team, to get to the scene quickly.
Snipers positioned themselves in the windows of surrounding homes. An armored truck revved up to the scene. Medics brought in bleed control kits in case someone was hit by gunfire.
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By early afternoon, tactical officers were spotted breaking the windows to a nearby home to remove the residents from any danger.
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Several people were inside the duplex where Gordon was believed to be holed up. Police were calling through a loudspeaker for him to surrender.
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“Andre, if you can hear me, we want you to come out the front door,” a negotiator said.
Police believed the people inside the home where Gordon had ties may have been hostages, according to Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn.
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Tactical officers flooded the house with tear gas at one point.
Neighbors and business owners flocked to the scene to watch the action. CNN and Fox News Channel dipped in and out of helicopter shots of the standoff. Social media was flooded with videos from locals attempting to get the exclusive shots of Gordon coming out of the home.
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However, what those at the scene didn’t know was that Gordon was a few blocks away. He slipped the perimeter just before or just after the first officers arrived to find him.
A Trenton resident, a friend of Gordon’s father, told LevittownNow.com he was walking near the police perimeter, which was filled with patrol officers, bystanders, and reporters, when he spotted Gordon, a young man he had known for years.
“I saw him and he walked away,” the man said.
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The man was in shock and knew that Gordon’s father was over at the Falls Township police station waiting to hear word on his son and whether he was captured.
A woman who knew the man came to the perimeter and said Gordon had been spotted. She seemed distressed and frazzled. Most didn’t pay much attention to her at the chaotic scene.
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Minutes later, Trenton officers confirmed that Gordon had been spotted on New York Avenue behind the hospital, Trenton Police Department Director Steve Wilson said.
At the standoff scene, police and federal authorities began rushing toward the hospital around 4:45 p.m.
Witnesses to the arrest said marked and unmarked police vehicles rushed to the location.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
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“When I was walking back from 7-Eleven, I seen somebody running. I just hear the cops and cars. So he ran like he was facing 300 years, bro,” said a teenager who witnessed the arrest.
Another teen said they directed the cops to Gordon and he ended up surrendering after running.
“They got the FBI jumping out in all business casual. They hopped out with guns out and all and they got him. He laid on the ground,” the second teen said.
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Alexander Williams was one of the teens who spotted the action and said he was shocked to see the arrest.
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“The cops were flooding everywhere by the hospital,” he said.
Marissa Ridorfino was with Williams and friends when it went down.
“He bolted and they got him. It was crazy,” Ridorfino said.
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The Trenton girl said she didn’t see Gordon with any firearms, but she said he was swarmed by law enforcement so quickly it was hard to see.
Gordon was loaded into an unmarked police SUV and taken to a station for processing.
Wilson, Trenton’s police director, said the circumstances on how Gordon got away were still under investigation.
“We still had to operate as if he was in the house whether he was in there or not,” Wilson explained.
The fast deployment of police from the local, county, state, and federal level “helped prevent further injury and loss of life to the public and to any law enforcement officer,” Wilson told reporters.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora said he was pleased Gordon was in custody after several tense hours in the city.
J. Stephen Ferketic, director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, said Saturday’s incidents in Bucks and Mercer counties will were shocking.
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“Thankfully, they ended with the apprehension of the suspect without further gunfire,” he said.
On Sunday morning, the New Jersey attorney general and Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri filed the first charges against Gordon.
Bucks County officials will be filing their case soon and plan to begin extradition proceedings.
Gordon was being housed on Sunday in the Mercer County Correction Center.
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