Blitz said arrest warrants for murder have been issued for Darnell Collins, 33, of the 1100 block of Baltic Ave. Authorities said Collins also uses the name of Mwanza Kamau.
Police are trying to determine whether Collins was involved in the stabbing of a third woman and the fatal shooting of a man at a motel in Williamstown, N.J., shortly after the Gates killings.
Investigators said April Gates had obtained a restraining order against Collins late Friday.
Police said they were called to an apartment on North Maryland Avenue, where April Gates had been visiting a friend, at 2:48 a.m. There, they found her body. She had been shot to death.
Meanwhile, a passerby flagged down police in front of the Gates' home and variety store on North Virginia Avenue. In the store, police found Shirley Jean Gates with her hands bound behind her with an electric cord. She had been shot twice in the head.
Blitz said Collins apparently rode his bicycle to the Gates' home, where the mother was killed.
Blitz said Collins is believed to have stolen the mother's van then and driven to the apartment where the daughter was killed.
Blitz said Collins apparently left the van at the second location and stole April Gates' car after she was killed.
April Gates' car was found about 3:30 a.m. in the parking lot of the Star Motel on the Black Horse Pike in Williamstown.
In the motel parking lot, police found Stacy Smith, 27, bleeding of multiple stab wounds. She had lived at the motel for the last two weeks. Inside her room, they found the body of William Dawson, 41, of Sicklerville. He had been shot to death.
Smith was taken to Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center in Camden, where she was listed in critical condition.
