Jacksonville police arrested a suspect “hiding at a motel” after three people were stabbed to death in what the Sheriff’s Office called “an isolated domestic incident with no threat to the community.”
Austin Lee Fisher, 30, was booked Thursday night, May 28, on three counts of second-degree murder and armed robbery. The Times-Union has requested his arrest report.
In announcing the arrest, the Sheriff’s Office said its communication center received a call about 3 a.m. to a home on Exodus Way off Lenox Avenue near Fouraker Road about a man knocking on the caller’s front door. When officers arrived, they found 49-year-old Edwin Fitzgerald Barber on the front porch with a stab wound to his chest. They learned Barber had been stabbed at his home down the street and ran to his neighbor’s house for help.
Officers went to Barber’s house and found 27-year-old Savannah Renee Barber inside a bedroom with multiple stab wounds. While continuing to canvass the neighborhood, officers found 37-year-old Shad Branden Cole with multiple stab wounds on the porch of another house. The Sheriff’s Office said those two died before they could receive medical attention, and the other victim died at the hospital.
The Sheriff’s Office said thanks in part to tips from the community, investigators identified Fisher as the suspect and learned he was at a motel in the Normandy Village area.
“The Community Problem Response Unit and SWAT team went to the motel to take Fisher into custody, but he refused to exit,” the Sheriff’s Office said. “After several hours in a standoff, JSO took Fisher into custody.”
The Sheriff’s Office did not provide a possible motive, what led up to the attacks, whether a weapon was seized or explain everyone’s domestic relations.
Property records list the Exodus Way home owner as Cole. A 2024 court records also lists Savannah Barber as living there. Friend Kristin Green spoke with Times-Union news partner First Coast News and described her as driven, family-oriented and supportive of those around her.
“She was a go-getter. She loved her family, she loved her friends, and she was always there for anybody that needed her,” Green said.
(This is a developing story.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Arrest made in domestic stabbing attack that killed 3 in Jacksonville
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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