A 23-year-old man who shot and killed eight people in the suburb Chicago This weekend an attempt was made to kill a ninth, new images show. Police said they believe the killer was related to most of the victims.
Romeo Nance committed his murder spree and then drove 1,000 miles to Texas, where he was tracked down by police on Monday. When officers approached, he committed suicide.
His motive is not yet known, but authorities said Tuesday that he was related to most of the victims.
New footage, also released Tuesday, showed a red Toyota Camry driving along the 200 block of Davis Street, Joliet, on Sunday shortly after 4 p.m.
The car stopped next to another vehicle, with a man outside. The driver and the man outside his car exchange words.
Romeo Nance, 23, shot and killed eight people and tried to kill a ninth on Sunday in Joliet, Illinois. On Monday he was arrested in Texas and committed suicide
Police were searching for a red Toyota Camry that was seen near the scenes of two other shootings on Sunday
According to police, Nance was probably driving a red Toyota Camry with license plate Q730412
Surveillance footage shows his car driving onto the road towards a man running away. Then gunshots are heard. A 42-year-old man was shot in the leg but is expected to recover
The red Toyota drives away, makes a U-turn and comes back. As the second man – later revealed to be a 42-year-old – walks away, Nance opens fire and shoots him in the leg. Then he drives away.
Authorities in Illinois said they are still baffled by the massacre.
Nance had a long criminal history, The Chicago Sun Times reported, with arrests for gun violence, aggravated battery and obstruction.
“We can’t get inside his head,” said Joliet Police Chief Bill Evans.
“We just have no idea why he did what he did.”
Investigators believe Nance first shot seven people at the homes of two relatives in the city of Joliet on Sunday, then randomly shot two men – one outside an apartment building and another on a residential street. One of them died.
Police said they had not yet determined the victims’ exact relationship to Nance.
The Will County coroner on Tuesday identified the victims found in the Joliet homes as 38-year-old Christine Esters, 47-year-old Tamaeka Nance, 35-year-old William Esters II, 31-year-old Joshua Nance and the 20-year-old Alexandria Nance.
The names of two teenage girls, 14 and 16, have not been released.
Nance was linked to three shootings in Joliet on Sunday and Monday before fleeing and was eventually seen Monday evening at a Chubby’s gas station 1,100 miles away in Texas.
Joliet police officers work at the scene Tuesday where several people were shot
Two people were found dead in a home in Joliet, while five were found dead in another home
The two homes are located in the 2200 block of West Acres Road
Five of the family members were found dead in one of the houses and another two were found dead in another house across the road
Authorities previously identified the man killed outside the apartment building as Toyosi Bakare, a 28-year-old man originally from Nigeria who had been living in the U.S. for about three years.
Nance fatally shot himself Monday evening after U.S. Marshals located him near Natalia, Texas, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio.
The city is located more than 1,000 miles from Joliet.
He had no known ties to Texas, Illinois authorities confirmed Tuesday.
Nance’s death was announced hours after Illinois authorities used social media and a news conference to share the first details of the killings there.
Medina County, Texas, Sheriff Randy Brown said his office received a call Monday about a person suspected of killings in the Chicago area heading into the county on Interstate 35.
Brown said he believes the suspect was trying to reach Mexico.
“It looks like they (criminal suspects) are all going to Mexico,” Brown said.
Mexico is located about 120 miles south of Natalia, along Interstate 35.
An earlier mugshot of Nance from 2019 after he was charged with theft and robbery
The gas station was cordoned off after reports of a ‘confrontation’ with police on the forecourt
Joliet Police Chief Bill Evans said it was the ‘worst’ crime scene he had seen in his 29-year career
Officers from multiple agencies confronted Nance, Brown said.
The Texas Rangers are investigating Nance’s death and believe he shot himself, said Lt. Jason Reyes, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, which includes the Rangers.
The shootings in Illinois represent the fourth mass killing in the US this year.
The third took place on Sunday in another Chicago suburb, Tinley Park, where The police have arrested a man killing his wife and three adult daughters.
The database defines a mass murder as an attack that kills four or more people, not including the perpetrator, within a 24-hour period.
Nance’s victims were found in three separate homes on Sunday and Monday.
Footage from the scene showed a red Toyota Camry – like the one linked to Nance in Illinois – pulled up next to a pump and pinned down by a large black pickup.
Police were first notified of a man who was found Sunday with an apparent gunshot wound outside apartments in Will County and pronounced dead at a hospital, later identified as Bakare.
Shortly afterward, they learned the 42-year-old man had been shot in the leg outside a nearby home.
Curtis Ellis said he lives next door to the man injured in the shooting and captured it on a surveillance camera aimed at their street.
Ellis said he was watching the Detroit Lions play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in an NFL playoff game when he heard the shots, saw his injured neighbor outside and called police.
“That could have been me or my wife in the front yard, which is scary,” Ellis, 56, said.
“You didn’t hurt anyone, why would someone just want to shoot you?”
Will County Chief Deputy Dan Jungles said officers used video surveillance and license plate readers to identify the suspected gunman’s car late Sunday and set up patrols near his known addresses.
Deputy Chief Dan Jungles said they had been watching the homes since midnight Sunday
The car had not been seen locally on Monday and officers went to Nance’s last known address around noon, the office said.
Jungles said no one answered in that house. They went to another house associated with Nance and his family across the street and saw blood on the door and bullet holes on the outside of the house.
Police then entered both addresses and found the bodies of the seven people who died, Jungles said.
“I’ve been a police officer for 29 years and this is probably the worst crime scene I’ve ever been associated with,” said Evans, the Joliet police chief.
Less than two hours later, a helicopter had identified Nance’s car on I-35 in Texas and police there surrounded him at a gas station.