Eight people were shot to death and a ninth wounded in the Joliet area on Sunday and Monday, and police are searching for the one man they believe is responsible.
Officers on Monday found “multiple deceased individuals” with gunshot wounds in two homes in the 2200 block of West Acres Road, Joliet police said in a statement on its Facebook page.
“I’ve been a policeman for 29 years, this is probably the worst crime scene I’ve ever been associated with,” Bill Evans, the Joliet chief of police, said at a news conference.
Considered “armed and dangerous,” the suspect, Romeo Nance, had a criminal history and was related to Monday’s victims, Evans said.
Investigators have not released their ages, genders or relationships to each other.
Dan Jungles, the deputy chief of the Will County Sheriff’s Office, said officers had been staking out the scene of Sunday’s shooting overnight after they identified Nance’s vehicle as being connected.
When he didn’t return to the scene, officers went to check Nance’s last-known address in the 2200 block of West Acres Avenue, Jungles said. Officers then went across the street to a “related” home and found blood outside, prompting them to enter, where they found two victims.
Officers then went across the street and found the other five victims.
Nance, 23, is believed to be driving a red Toyota Camry with Illinois license plate Q730412. He should be regarded as armed and dangerous, police said. He’s described as being 6 foot 2 and weighing 160 pounds.
Deputies were called about 4:30 p.m. Sunday to the Pheasant Run Apartments in unincorporated Joliet Township and found a man with a gunshot wound to the head, the sheriff’s office said.
Toyosi Baker, a 28-year-old from Nigeria, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, the sheriff’s office said. Baker had been living in the U.S. for about three years.
The sheriff’s office said a similar shooting occurred about 10 minutes earlier Sunday, also in Joliet.
A 42-year-old man was found shot in the leg in the 200 block of Davis Street, the sheriff’s office said, adding that the victims in the two Sunday shootings were not connected, and the incidents appear to be random.
The sheriff’s office warned residents who spot the vehicle or Nance to not approach and to call 911 immediately.