Eight people were found shot and killed in three different locations over two days in Joliet, and the suspect in the slayings was also found dead by a suspected suicide 1,200 miles away Monday night, police said.
The apparent self-inflicted gunshot death of 23-year-old Romeo Nance in Texas followed a manhunt by multiple law enforcement agencies.
At a news conference, Joliet police Chief Bill Evans said at 12:04 p.m. Monday, his officers were notified by the Will County Sheriff’s office about several people found dead in two separate houses in the 2200 block of West Acres Road, near Madison Street.
Responding officers found a total of seven people in two houses who had all been shot dead, Evans said.
The scene was just a few blocks from the busy intersection of Jefferson Street and Larkin Avenue – and also right near Ascension St. Joseph Hospital and Joliet West High School.
Joliet police said immediately after announcing the Monday shooting deaths that they were looking for Nance. He was believed to have been driving a red Toyota Camry, Nance’s last known address had been on the same block of Acres Road, Evans said. Evans said Nance knew the victims found in the two houses, and it was believed they were all related.