Levittown Man Killed His Stepmom, Sister, and Ex - Then Tried to Disappear | Andre Gordon Jr

Two 911 calls. Two families. And one gunman who knew exactly who he was looking for.

On a quiet Saturday morning in March 2024, the calm in Levittown, Pennsylvania, was shattered by gunfire, and it started with a stolen car and a ghost gun. Within minutes, three people were dead, including a mother and her 13-year-old daughter.

But this wasn’t random. And this wasn’t over.

In this episode, we follow the manhunt for 26-year-old Andre Gordon Jr., from the break-ins to the hostage scare, to the moment police finally took him down. What made him snap? And how did no one see it coming?

Listen now. Some rampages don’t come with a warning.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
On the morning of March sixteenth, twenty twenty four, fifty
two year old Karen Gordon was huddled behind a locked
office door with her thirteen year old daughter, Kira. She'd
called nine one one, pleading for.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Help my step son, he's the one shooting. Please, I've
got children in here.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Her daughter repeatedly screamed, please hurry. The call was abruptly
silenced by gunshots. Moments later, another nine to one to
one call came in, with twenty five year old Taylor
Daniels screaming quote, he's got a gun. The operator could
hear her urging others in her home to lock themselves
in their rooms, followed by more screams, gunshots, and the

(00:42):
heartbreaking cries of her young children calling for mommy.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Welcome to Love and Murder, Heartbreak to Homicide were Kai's
AI co hosts bringing you another midweek mini case written
by Kai. So get comfortable, settle in, and stay with
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(01:09):
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Speaker 2 (01:27):
Now let's get back to your Wednesday case.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Everything started around eight thirty am on Saturday, March sixteenth,
in Trenton, New Jersey, twenty six year old Andre Gordon
Junior had carjacked a woman named Sonya Hanson while she
was sitting in her car with her nine year old
grandson on Southard Street. Andre pulled out a gun, causing
Sonya's grandson to jump out and run, and then she

(01:53):
herself jumped over the seat and ran to her daughter's house.
Andre then stole the dark gray under CRV armed with
what authorities believe was a ghost gun, which is an
untraceable AR fifteen style rifle that's usually self built. Andre
drove the stolen car straight to Levittown, Pennsylvania. Just before

(02:15):
nine am, falls Township police got a call about a
break in on Viewpoint Lane. This was Andre's father's house,
his next stop where he forced his way inside. Door
bell camera footage saw him confronting his dad at the
front door before smashing his way inside the house. Once
he got inside, police said he started quote hunting the residence. First,

(02:39):
he shot and killed his stepmother, fifty two year old
Karen Gordon. Then he killed his thirteen year old sister, Kira.
There were three other family members in the house at
the time, including another thirteen year old. These family members
thankfully managed to hide and ultimately survived. After leaving his
father's house, Andre drove about two miles to Edgewood Lane.

(03:02):
This time the target was twenty five year old Taylor Daniel,
the mother of his two children. He forced his way
inside her house and shot her in front of their kids.
Four other people were inside, Taylor's five year old and
three year old daughters, her brother, and her mother, Nancy Daniel.
When Nancy tried to intervene, Andrea quote bludgeoned Daniel's mother

(03:26):
with his assault rifle. She ended up with a head
laceration that required staples and was rushed to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital.
By nine thirteen, A m Andre had carjacked another car
at gunpoint from a forty four year old man outside
the Dollar General in Morrisville. He then drove the stolen
suv back to Trenton, New Jersey, where he tried to hide.

(03:48):
In the meantime, the shootings triggered a man hunt that
shut down Bucks County and parts of New Jersey, and
a shelter in place order was issued in Falls Township.
The holiday parade was canceled, and popular attractions like the
Sesame Place amusement park and the Oxford Valley Mall were closed.
By eleven thirty eight am, police found the stolen Honda

(04:11):
abandoned in Trenton, New Jersey. Around twelve twenty pm. They'd
thought they found Andre barricaded inside a home, and they
thought he had hostages. Swats surrounded the house, broke windows
and deployed tear gas. They evacuated people through upstairs windows
and carried others out. After everything calmed down, police realized

(04:32):
that Andre wasn't in the house. Trenton Police Director Stephen
Wilson said.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
He was at that house at one point, but before
we were able to establish a perimeter, he slipped out.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Turns out Andre had walked away and tried to blend
into the crowd. At around five pm, Trenton police found
him strolling down New York Avenue, a few blocks from
the standoff scene. He'd cut his hair to disguise himself.
A witness described the takedown. Officers had guns drawn, but
Andre got down on the ground first and was still tackled.

(05:06):
After that, he was arrested peacefully, unarmed, uninjured, and compliant.
Investigators said that Andrea was believed to be homeless, but
had ties to Trenton Falls Township. Police Chief Nelson Whitney
said there were minor contacts with him in the past,
mostly traffic citations, but quote nothing that would indicate that

(05:29):
anything like this would happen. Investigators couldn't figure out a motive,
and according to Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Shan, Andrea
was loved and came from a good family. Andre went
to trial for multiple offenses in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
In Pennsylvania, he faced three counts of first degree murder,

(05:51):
three counts of second degree murder, two counts of burglary,
two counts of aggravated assault, and a list of other
violent offenses. In New Jersey, his charges included first degree carjacking,
second degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose,
and second degree unlawful possession of an assault firearm. At first,

(06:14):
Attorney Sean had planned to pursue the death penalty, but
on May twenty eighth, twenty twenty five, that changed. At
a pre trial conference, Andre entered guilty pleas to all
three counts of first degree murder and other charges. All
of the other charges included attempted homicide, burglary, aggravated assault,

(06:37):
robbery of a motor vehicle, robbery, unlawful restraint, discharging a
firearm into an occupied structure, theft by unlawful taking, possession
of an instrument of crime, terroristic threats, simple assault, and
recklessly endangering another person. Because he pled guilty to everything,

(06:58):
the court took the death penalty off the table. During
the sentencing hearing, the prosecution, led by Attorney Sean and
first Assistant District Attorney Edward Luca, presented a powerful case.
They played the recordings of the nine one to one
calls from both shooting scenes, where everyone could hear the gunshots,
the panic, the silence, and the children crying. They showed

(07:22):
body cam and surveillance footage, giving everyone in the courtroom
a clear look at what had happened. To wrap everything up,
the prosecution played a recording from an interview with one
of Taylor Daniel's daughters. To say it was heartbreaking would
be an understatement. After the prosecution's presentations, surviving family members

(07:42):
read emotional victim impact statements. Karen's brother told the court, I.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
Lost more than my sister and my niece. I lost
a piece of myself that I never thought I would
ever come back from.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Finally, Judge Raymond F. McHugh looked straight at Andre and said.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
There are no words to explain why this happened.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
He told the courtroom he could feel the pain in
every impact statement, every video, every voice. Andre was sentenced
to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
On top of that, he received another one hundred fifty
six and a half to three hundred thirteen years in
state prison for the rest of the violent acts. He

(08:24):
committed that day all sentences are to run consecutively to
quote in sure there is no possibility that he would
ever be released from prison. District Attorney Sean called both
Karen Gordon and Taylor Daniel heroic for trying to protect
the children during the attacks, but Andre wasn't done yet.

(08:45):
In a separate case, he pleaded guilty to assaulting corrections
officers at the Bucks County Correctional Facility in May twenty
twenty four. For that, he picked up an additional sentence
of forty two to eighty four months in state prison,
to be served concurrently with the triple murder case. This

(09:05):
case demonstrates what happens when multiple departments work together. This
horrible man was taken off the streets in a matter
of hours. The investigation pulled in law enforcement from nearly
a dozen agencies, Falls Township, Bristol Township, Lower make Field, Middletown,
tullytown Borough, Trenton PD, State police from both Pennsylvania and

(09:29):
New Jersey, and the Mercer County Prosecutor's office. By the
time Andrea was sentenced on May twenty eighth, twenty twenty five,
the courtroom had seen and heard everything. This wasn't just
a rampage. It was a coordinated attack on the people
who loved him most. In less than an hour, Andre

(09:49):
Gordon shattered three families, traumatized a neighborhood, and left a
ripple of grief that'll never fully go away. Karen Gordon
died trying to protect her Taylor Daniel died in front
of hers, and two young children will grow up without
their mother because of something no one, not their family,
not the courts, not even law enforcement, ever saw coming.

(10:13):
Andre's guilty plea might have spared everyone the pain of
a long trial, but it didn't spare the damage that's
already done.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
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(10:45):
Thanks for your time, thanks for listening, and we'll see
you in the next episode.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Think