JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A family on Jacksonville’s Westside had an early morning encounter with a stranger on Thursday.
They said he looked disheveled, asked for water and eventually accepted an Uber ride paid for by the family.
Hours later, the family learned that the same man, 30-year-old Austin Fisher, was wanted for murder in a triple stabbing just blocks from their home.
Bob Isacs told News4JAX reporter Briana Brownlee and photojournalist Jesse Hanson that Fisher, who introduced himself only as “Austin,” knocked on their door around 6:45 a.m. Thursday.
Isacs’ sister-in-law, who had just been outside smoking a cigarette, opened the door to find a “rough-looking young guy” asking for some water.
Isacs said the sister-in-law woke him up because the man said “he did somethin’ he wasn’t gonna be forgiven for” and admitted to stabbing multiple people.
Isacs said his family wasn’t sure what to think as Fisher described getting into a fight with his roommate and stabbing the roommate and the roommate’s father.
“I’m thinking he just, like, cut someone or something,” Isacs said. “I’m not thinking, you know, what I find out later.”
What Isacs and his family found out later was that Fisher was accused of fatally stabbing three people: 49-year-old Edwin Barber, 27-year-old Savannah Barber and 37-year-old Shad Cole at a home on Exodus Way in Normandy Estates.
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Family members said Savannah was Edwin’s stepdaughter and Cole was her fiancé.
Isacs said the site of the triple stabbings is just a few blocks from where his family lives.
“It was shocking. I mean, my sister-in-law started crying, because you don’t think someone would do something that bad," Isacs said. “I just feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for the people that got killed too, don’t get me wrong. But I met him, and he didn’t seem like a killer.
“He was just a calm kid,” Isacs continued. “He was scared. You could see it in his eyes.”
Isacs said Fisher described spending hours in a ditch hiding from police, who were searching for him with helicopters, and said he was “coming down” off drugs. Fisher said he was probably going to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Isacs was skeptical of his story, though, because Fisher was so calm.
“If I would have felt scared, I’d have pulled my gun on him. You know what I’m saying?” Isacs said. “But he just was really calm, and he knew what he did.”
Isacs said he woke up his nephew, who was also in the home, and his nephew eventually called an Uber for Fisher, who said he wanted to go see his mom.
Isacs said Fisher had cash on him and offered the nephew $100 to cover the cost of the ride, but the nephew wouldn’t take the money.
“We actually said bye to the kid. We told him to get his life straight, and he got in the Uber, and he was gone,” Isacs said.
Later, when they saw the news about the nearby stabbings, Isacs’ family immediately called the police.
“I don’t really feel bad about not calling the police when he was here because I didn’t think I had to call the police,“ Isacs explained. ”I really thought he did something wrong, but he was gonna take care of it."
The SWAT team eventually took Fisher into custody after an hours-long standoff at a motel on Ramona Boulevard, police said.
“He never ever said he was sorry or nothing like that, but you could see it on his face,” Isacs said. “He was remorseful.”
What police say happened
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.
JSO said investigators learned from community tips that Fisher was the likely suspect and found him hiding at a motel in the Normandy Village area.
The SWAT Team went to the motel to take Fisher into custody, but he refused to exit. After several hours in a standoff, JSO said, they took Fisher into custody.
Fisher made his first appearance in court on Friday morning (press play below to watch) on three charges of second-degree murder and one count of armed robbery. He was ordered to be held without bond and will be back in court on June 18.