Suspect in Chicago Shooting Spree That Killed 8 Dies in Texas

Romeo Nance, 23, shot himself in confrontation with police
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 23, 2024 2:00 AM CST
Man Suspected of Chicago Shooting Spree That Killed 8 Dies in Texas
Police work a scene, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, in Joliet, Ill., after multiple people were shot and killed over two days at three locations in the Chicago suburbs.   (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

A man suspected of shooting and killing eight people in suburban Chicago is believed to have fatally shot himself after a confrontation with law enforcement officials in Texas, police said late Monday. Police in Joliet, Illinois, said on Facebook that at about 8:30pm Central time 23-year-old Romeo Nance was located by US Marshals near Natalia, Texas, and that Nance shot himself after a confrontation, the AP reports. Nance is suspected of fatally shooting eight people at three locations in the Chicago suburbs, sparking a search that left neighbors on edge earlier Monday as police warned he was still on the loose and should be considered "armed and dangerous." Police in Will County in Illinois and Joliet previously said they did not know of a motive for the killings, but said Nance knew the victims.

One of the people killed was found Sunday in a home in Will County. Seven others were found Monday at two homes on the same block in Joliet, located about 6 miles northwest of the scene police discovered first. Will County Chief Deputy Dan Jungles said during the Monday news conference that deputies had been staking out one of the houses since Sunday evening in case Nance, the suspect in the first fatal shooting they discovered, returned to them. Nance's last known address was one of the homes, police said. When no one showed, deputies finally went to the door of one of the houses. No one answered, so they crossed the street to the other house, which they knew was linked to the first house and found the first bodies. Five bodies were found in one house and two bodies were found in the other.

Jungles said he didn't have any indication yet of how long the people in the houses had been dead. He said that autopsies were pending. Evans said the victims found Monday in the houses were family members. Asked if the victims were members of the suspect's family, Jungles said he couldn't comment except to say that the suspect knew them. Authorities said they also believe Nance was connected to another shooting in Joliet that wounded a man on Sunday but would not discuss their evidence.

(More shooting spree stories.)

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