A 23-year-old man who shot and killed eight people in suburban Chicago this weekend attempted to murder a ninth, new footage has shown – as police said they believe the killer was related to most of the victims.
Romeo Nance carried out his killing spree then drove 1,000 miles to Texas, where he was tracked down by police on Monday. As officers approached, he killed himself.
His motive is not yet known, but authorities said on Tuesday that he was related to most of the victims.
New footage, also released on Tuesday, showed a red Toyota Camry driving along the 200 block of Davis Street, Joliet shortly after 4pm on Sunday.
The car pulled up alongside 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 attempted to kill a ninth, on Sunday in Joliet, Illinois. On Monday he was caught in Texas and killed himself
Police were looking for a red Toyota Camry which was seen near the scenes of two other shootings on Sunday
Police said Nance was believed to be driving a red Toyota Camry with the license plate Q730412
His car is seen in surveillance footage driving up the road towards a man walking away. Gunshots are then heard. A 42-year-old man was shot in the leg, but is expected to recover
The red Toyota drives away, and then does a U-turn and comes back. As the second man – later revealed to be a 42-year-old – is walking away, Nance opens fire, shooting him in the leg. He then drives off.
Authorities in Illinois said they remain baffled by the killing spree.
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 Bill Evans, Joliet police chief.
‘We just don’t have any clue as to why he did what he did.’
Investigators believe Nance first shot seven people at two relatives’ homes in the city of Joliet on Sunday, then fired randomly at 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 relationships to Nance.
The Will County coroner on Tuesday identified the victims found at the Joliet homes: 38-year-old Christine Esters, 47-year-old Tamaeka Nance, 35-year-old William Esters II, 31-year-old Joshua Nance and 20-year-old Alexandria Nance.
The names of two teenage girls, 14 and 16, were not released.
Nance was linked to three shootings in Joliet on Sunday and Monday before he fled and was finally spotted at a Chubby’s gas station 1,191-miles away in Texas on Monday evening
Joliet police officers work on Tuesday at the scene where multiple people were shot
Two people were found dead in one home in Joliet while five were found dead in another house
The two homes are located on the 2200 block of West Acres Road
Five of the family members were found dead in one of the houses and then 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 southwest of San Antonio.
The town is more than 1,000 miles from Joliet.
He had no known ties to Texas, Illinois authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
Nance’s death was announced hours after Illinois authorities used social media and a news conference to share initial details of the killings there.
Sheriff Randy Brown of Medina County, Texas said his office received a call on Monday about a person suspected in the Chicago-area killings heading into the county on Interstate 35.
Brown said he believes the suspect was trying to reach Mexico.
‘It seems like they (criminal suspects) all head to Mexico,’ said Brown.
Mexico is about 120 miles south of Natalia, along Interstate 35.
A previous 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 in the forecourt
Footage of the scene showed a red Toyota Camry – like the one linked to Nance in Illinois – stopped next to a pump and pinned in by a large black pick-up truck
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 spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, of which the Rangers are part.
The Illinois shootings represent the fourth mass killing in the U.S. this year.
The third happened Sunday in another Chicago-area suburb, Tinley Park, where police have charged a man with killing his wife and three adult daughters.
The database defines a mass killing as an attack in which four or more people have died, not including the perpetrator, within a 24-hour period.
Nance’s victims were found on Sunday and Monday at three separate homes.
Police were first notified of a man found with an apparent gunshot wound Sunday outside of apartments in Will County and pronounced dead at a hospital, later identified as Bakare.
Shortly after, they learned of the 42-year-old man shot in the leg outside a home nearby.
Curtis Ellis said he lives next door to the man wounded in that 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 hurt neighbor outside and called police.
‘That could have been me or my wife in the front yard, which is scary,’ Ellis, 56, said.
‘You haven’t done nothing to anybody, why would somebody just target to shoot you?’
Will County Chief Deputy Dan Jungles said deputies used video surveillance and license plate readers to identify the car of the suspected shooter late Sunday and to set up patrols near his known addresses.
Deputy Chief Dan Jungles said they had been surveilling the houses since midnight on Sunday
By Monday, the car hadn’t been seen locally and deputies went to Nance’s last known address around noon, the office said.
Jungles said no one answered at that home, they went to another home connected to Nance and his family across the street and saw blood on the door and bullet holes on the exterior of the house.
Police then forced their way into both addresses and found the bodies of the seven people killed, Jungles said.
‘I’ve been a policeman 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 law enforcement there surrounded him at a gas station.