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At about 5:30 p.m. on January 5, 2026, Piscataway police received two 911 calls from a residence. In the first call, a female could be heard yelling, "Stop! Stop!" with other commotion and yelling in the background. That call came from the cellphone of Jeanmarie Barnes, a relative of Jordan Barnes who was later found deceased in the home.

A second relative called 911 and reported that Jordan Barnes was threatening to stab people inside the residence. The first officers arrived at about 5:33 p.m. and saw Barnes on the front porch. As an officer approached, Barnes picked up a knife from the ground, went inside, and locked the front door.

The caller in the driveway told officers there were three more people inside with Barnes. Barnes then appeared in a second-story window, made a gesture to his neck, and yelled that officers were not getting inside.

Officers gathered on the front porch. While one officer tried to speak with Barnes through the closed front door, Officer John Ward looked through the sidelight and saw two people lying unresponsive on the floor. Officers used a key from the relative to open the front door.

Inside, Barnes was holding a kitchen knife in his left hand. Officers ordered him to drop the knife and get on the ground. He did not, and advanced toward them. Three officers discharged tasers to no effect. Officer Ward fired his service weapon, striking Barnes. Officers gave medical aid and cleared the residence for emergency personnel, who pronounced Barnes deceased at the scene.

A large kitchen knife was recovered from the front porch, and a second broken knife was recovered from the immediate threshold of the entrance. After the shooting, Jeanmarie Barnes, 60, Richard A. Barnes, 86, and Brenda F. Barnes, 84, were found deceased inside the residence with multiple suspected stab wounds.

Watch the video of this incident here.