A man wanted in the fatal shootings of eight people in the Joliet area was found dead Monday night by U.S. Marshals in Texas after he took his own life, according to the Joliet Police Department.
Medina County Sheriff officials received a call that Romeo Nance was heading into their county, according to a post on their social media page around 10 p.m. After a standoff at Chubby’s gas station in Natalia, Nance sustained “self inflicted gunshot wounds,” officials wrote in the post. He died around 8:30 p.m., Joliet police said.
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Law enforcement officials had launched a manhunt Monday for Nance, 23, after eight people were killed at three locations in the Joliet area since Sunday.
“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 said at a news conference Monday night, before Nance was found.
One of the people killed was found Sunday in a home in Will County. Seven others were found Monday at two homes in the 2200 block of West Acres Road of Joliet.
Dan Jungles, deputy chief with the Will County sheriff’s office said at the news conference that authorities were investigating after a shooting occurred at a building on Pheasant Run Lane in Joliet Township.
A man, identified as 28-year-old Toyosi Bakare, was found with blood coming out of his head, Jungles said, and transferred to Ascension St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet where he later died. Bakare was originally from Nigeria and had been living in Will County for three years, Jungles said.
Police in the city of Joliet and Will County said they did not know of a motive for the killings. Authorities said Nance knew the victims. No age range of the victims was released.
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Jungles said deputies had been staking out one of the Joliet houses since Sunday in case the suspect in that day’s shootings returned. When no one showed, deputies finally went to the door of a house across the street — knowing it was related. They discovered blood and entered to look for injured people.
Police said there were five people in one home and two in another. They are believed to be family members, according to authorities.
Police notified the public in a social media post at 1:50 p.m. Monday and provided information about the search at 3 p.m.
“Our hearts go out to the victims’ families of this heinous crime,” said Dwayne English, spokesman for Joliet police.
In January 2023, prosecutors charged Nance with aggravated discharge of a firearm, aggravated assault, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and reckless discharge of a firearm, according to Will County court records. That case is pending and additional details were not available Monday.
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Nance has three other open cases in Will County, charging him with criminal damage to government property, obstruction of a peace officer and battery. Nance was also cited for traffic violations in Will County 10 times between late 2019 and early 2023, court records show.
In January 2023, Nance was charged with unlawful discharge of a weapon after a road rage incident in which he shot a woman multiple times in Joliet. He was released from jail pending trial.
Chicago Tribune’s Sam Charles, Stacy St. Clair, Angie Leventis Lourgos, Jonathan Bullington and The Associated Press contributed.
