JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Police released the names Friday of the woman and two men who were killed early Thursday morning in a triple stabbing in the Normandy Estates neighborhood of Jacksonville’s Westside.
Police said 49-year-old Edwin Barber, 27-year-old Savannah Barber and 37-year-old Shad Cole were found fatally stabbed on Exodus Way just after 4 a.m.
Family members told News4JAX that Edwin is Savannah’s stepfather and Cole was her fiancé.
Police said the three were killed by 30-year-old Austin Fisher, who was taken into custody after a standoff with SWAT at a motel.
Police initially called the stabbings a domestic violence incident, but they have not said if or how Fisher is connected to the three victims.
A man who met Fisher shortly after the stabbing said Fisher told him that he’d snapped and killed his roommate and his roommate’s father.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, around 3 a.m. Thursday, dispatchers received a call that a man was knocking on the front door of a home on Exodus Way.
When the District 5 Patrol officers arrived, they found Edwin Barber on the front porch with a stab wound to his chest.
Investigators quickly learned Barber had been stabbed at his home down the street and had run to his neighbor’s house for help.
When officers went to Barber’s house, they found Savannah Barber inside a bedroom with multiple stab wounds, and then found Cole with multiple stab wounds on the porch of another house.
Savannah Barber and Cole died before they could receive medical attention. Edwin Barber died at the hospital, police said.
A neighbor captured video that shows blood smeared on a porch, door, and doorbell.
Savannah Barber’s mother, Amy Barber was distraught to learn her daughter was killed.
“She was my handful, but I loved her. I love her...She is, I’m not, it’s my baby. That’s my baby girl,” Amy Barber said.
Savannah Barber was more than a daughter, but she was a sister to Shayla Barber and a best friend to Kristen Green.
“I met her when I was 12, she’s been my friend for a long time...,” Green said.
“We had our good times, and we had our little fights and all, but we haven’t been speaking here lately, and other than that, it’s like always fun,” Shayla Barber said.
According to the family, Fisher, was a friend of the victims and lived with them on Exodus Way.
He has now been arrested and accused in connection with a triple stabbing and is facing three second-degree murder charges.
But moments after the horrific act, Fisher left the scene before police arrived, and according to Bob Isacs, who lives nearby. Fisher went to his house to ask for water after hiding out in a ditch for hours while coming down off drugs.
“He was just a calm kid,” Isacs said. “He was scared. You could see it in his eyes. He just told us the whole, kind of told us the whole story. He said he’d stabbed two people. That’s what he told us. He stabbed two. He said, he got an altercation with one of them. And then that, that person’s dead.”
Moments after that, Isacs said his wife prayed over Fisher and that his nephew called him an Uber to go see his mother, not realizing he was the suspect the police were looking for until they saw news reports.
“I called the police and told them we gave the killer an Uber ride, I didn’t think, you know, the dude had killed three people,” Isacs said.
Police say this incident appeared to have started with the altercation between the four roommates. But Amy Barber believes there is more to this story.
“I just don’t see her just leading to this. She had her ways, but this seems more than an incident with them two arguing. For her dad to get into the situation, it just had to be more. I don’t, JSO won’t tell me anything,” Amy Barber said.
Green said they’re all still in shock.
“It’s very hard to take in, especially with her mom. Her mom’s very devastated about it. We all are,” Green said.
A GoFundMe was created by the Barber family to help pay for the funerals.
Anyone with information about the stabbing is asked to call JSO at 904-630-0500 or CrimeStoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.