Pa. man who killed 3 of his relatives in armed rampage sentenced to life in prison

PHILADELPHIA — In the span of a few hours last year, Andre Gordon killed three of his loved ones in Lower Bucks County, leaving a trail of bloodshed across two states.

And now he will spend the rest of his life in prison for the crimes, the motive for which remains unclear.

Gordon, 27, pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of first-degree murder for killing his stepmother, half-sister, and the mother of his children during an armed rampage in Falls Township.

In a soft monotone, Gordon admitted he broke into his father’s home on March 16, 2024, and shot his stepmother, Karen, 57, and half-sister, Kera, 13, as they hid from him in a locked bedroom.

Gordon said he then drove to the nearby home of Taylor Daniel, 25, forced his way inside and shot her as their two daughters hid a foot away.

Bucks County Court Judge Raymond F. McHugh sentenced Gordon to three consecutive life sentences, as well as an additional 156 1/2 to 313 years in state prison for burglary, robbery and other crimes he committed on the day of the attack, as well as subsequent attacks on corrections officers at the county jail.

Prosecutors previously said they would seek the death penalty, but at Wednesday’s hearing, District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said she reconsidered that decision after input from the victims’ families.

Still, Schorn had sharp words for Gordon, saying his actions that day were inexcusable.

“He did not value human life,” she said. “He took the lives of his family members knowing the legacy he would leave behind for his daughters.”

Gordon’s attorney, Niels Eriksen, made no argument during Wednesday’s proceeding, relying on a mitigation report he submitted to McHugh that he said detailed the mental health treatment Gordon received at Norristown State Hospital after his arrest.

Eriksen declined to comment afterward.

On the day of the murders, Gordon carjacked a woman in Trenton, New Jersey, and drove to his father’s house on Viewpoint Lane in the stolen vehicle. He was armed with a 7.62 mm ghost gun with an extended magazine, according to evidence presented Wednesday.

Prosecutors say Gordon had been given the gun by an acquaintance in Trenton, where he had been living before the shootings. He was supposed to pass the gun along to his roommate, Schorn said, but instead, he kept it for himself.

Hiding his face with a balaclava, he rang his father’s door bell.

Andre Gordon Sr. demanded to know why his son was standing at his front door: His son was no longer welcome at the home because of earlier arguments and fights.

The younger Gordon offered no explanation, charged at his father and kicked the door as it was slammed closed in his face.

Gordon then broke a nearby window and began firing into the house, sending his family inside ducking for cover. He broke in, prosecutors said, and “hunted” them, walking room-to-room and spraying bullets.

Through a closed bedroom door, Gordon heard his stepmother calling 911 and shot through the door. A recording of that phone call played Wednesday showed that Karen and Kera Gorgon pleaded with a 911 dispatcher to send someone to save them.

The call ended abruptly as the two screamed — Schorn said Karen Gordon suffered the horrible fate of watching her daughter die before being killed by her stepson.

Gordon’s 14-year-old step-sister narrowly survived the attack by hiding under a pile of clothes in a closet in her bedroom. Gordon forced his way into that room, but didn’t check the closet, prosecutors said.

Gordon’s father survived by hiding under a bed in another bedroom.

In a victim-impact statement read Wednesday by Schorn, Gordon’s surviving stepsister raged against him, demanding to know why he had squandered the opportunities their family had given him.

Born in Jamaica, Gordon had been brought to the United States as teen by his father and stepmother, who started a new life for the family with him and later, their young daughters.

Gordon seemed to excel at first, his half-sister said, but in recent years had crumpled under the weight of being “a father and an adult.”

“He has made me lose two of the most important people in my life, and he has never regretted it,” said the teen. “I always envisioned a future with my mom, my dad and my sister, and now that is no longer possible.”

On the day of the shooting, as Falls Township Police sped to the Gordons’ home, they received reports of a second shooting nearby.

Gordon had driven a few minutes away to Edgewood Lane, to the home where Daniel lived with her mother, brother, and the two daughters, then 5 and 3, she shared with Gordon.

As with his family’s residence, Gordon was no longer welcome there, prosecutors said — Daniel said Gordon had abused her in the months leading up to her death, and told her mother she was considering applying for a restraining order against him.

So when Daniel saw Gordon walking toward her front door, she hid the girls, still dressed in their nightgowns, in their bedroom, covered them with their Spider-Man blanket and told them to be quiet, prosecutors said.

Gordon’s oldest daughter later told investigators she watched her father kill her mother, and held her hand over her sister’s mouth so she wouldn’t make noise as they hid under the blanket.

On the recording of a 911 call played in court Wednesday, the girl could be heard weakly calling out “Mommy,” in an attempt to rouse Daniel.

Nancy Daniel told police she heard Gordon kill her daughter, then saw him standing over her. She hit him with an ax handle to try to save her daughter, but Gordon overpowered her and knocked her to the floor with the butt of his rifle.

“I’m hollow inside,” Daniel said in a victim-impact letter read in court, in which she described the bullet holes that still mar the carpets in her home. “There’s an emptiness I never knew could exist.”

After the shootings, Gordon returned to Trenton by carjacking a second vehicle. There, after an hourslong standoff with police, he was taken into custody.

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