The man accused of fatally shooting eight people in a gruesome spree across Joliet was found dead in Texas on Monday after an intense manhunt, according to authorities. Identified as Romeo Nance, the 23-year-old suspect reportedly took his own life during a standoff with U.S. Marshals.
The confrontation occurred near Natalia, Texas, roughly 30 miles southwest of San Antonio, when law enforcement officers attempted to apprehend Nance. He died from "self inflicted gunshot wounds," as the Joliet Police Department disclosed in a statement obtained by the Chicago Tribune. This concluded the search that had begun the previous day after a grim discovery of multiple bodies at various locations in the Joliet area.
"I’ve been a policeman 29 years and this is probably the worst crime scene I’ve ever been associated with," Joliet Police Chief Williams Evans expressed during a news conference before the discovery of Nance was made public, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. The murder locations included two homes on the 2200 block of West Acres Road, where a total of seven victims were discovered on Monday. A day earlier, another victim was found in a home in Will County.
Law enforcement had been closely monitoring the areas of interest since the initial shootings on Sunday, according to Dan Jungles, deputy chief with the Will County Sheriff's Office. They decided to finally approach the homes when their surveillance tactics yielded no sign of the suspect's return, only to find tragic scenes within. Five victims were discovered in one home and two in another, believed to be related to each other, as told to NBC Chicago.
Prior to Monday's findings, two separate shootings on Sunday had already put the community on edge. The first incident left a 42-year-old man injured, and the second resulted in the death of 28-year-old Toyosi Bakare, a Will County resident of three years originally from Nigeria — his life violently taken, with blood pouring from his head, as confirmed by authorities and reported by NBC Chicago.
While the motive behind the murders was not immediately clear, police stated that Nance knew the victims, hinting at possible personal connections. Joliet police and the FBI Fugitive Task Force, alongside the Will County Sheriff's Office, had combined forces to locate and capture the suspect, ultimately leading to the tragic end in Texas with Nance's suicide.
"Our hearts go out to the victims’ families of this heinous crime," Dwayne English, spokesman for Joliet police, conveyed, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. As a community mourns, questions linger, and the stories of those lost begin to unfold, the full scope of the tragedy in Joliet is still coming to painful light.
