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Motive unclear in 8 shooting deaths in Joliet, Illinois, after suspected gunman found dead in Texas
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) — Investigators have not yet determined a motive for the shooting deaths of eight people in Joliet after the suspected gunman was found dead by apparent suicide in Texas on Monday night.
“We can’t get inside his head. We just don’t have any clue as to why he did what he did,” Joliet Police Chief Bill Evans said Tuesday afternoon of the suspected shooter, 23-year-old Romeo Nance.
Evans said investigators believe the shooting spree began at two homes across the street from each other in the 2200 block of West Acres Road on Sunday, although the seven people who were killed there were not found until Monday morning.
“It’s had a tremendous impact on my agency, both mentally and physically,” said Evans.
Five people – two girls, ages 14 and 16; two women, ages 20 and 38; and a 38-year-old man – were found dead in one house at 2225 W. Acres Rd., and two people – a 35-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman – were found dead in the other at 2212 W. Acres Rd., Evans said.
Five of the victims were identified as Christine Esters, 38; Tameka Nance, 47; William Esters II, 35; Joshua Nance 31; and Alexandria Nance, 20, according to the Will County Coroner’s office. The teenage girls have not been identified. The discrepancy in the ages of some of the victims as per information from Joliet police versus the Will County Coroner’s office was not immediately clarified.
“We may never know the truth”
Evans said Nance was related to most, if not all, of the people in the two homes, although their exact relationships with one another and Nance are not yet clear.
“We’re still sorting through that,” Evans said.
Investigators believe after the shootings on West Acres Road, Nance then shot a 42-year-old man in the leg Sunday afternoon in the 200 block of Davis Street in Joliet. That man was the only victim to survive the shooting spree.
Around 4:15 p.m. Sunday, surveillance video shows a red Toyota Camry associated with Nance passing by a man taking out his groceries. The driver of the Camry says something to the man taking out the groceries – and then drives to the end of the block before making a U-turn, stopping, and firing nine times.
About 10 minutes later, investigators believe Nance shot and killed 28-year-old Toyosi Bakare at the Pheasant Run Apartments complex in unincorporated Joliet Township on Sunday afternoon. Bakare, who was originally from Nigeria and lived in the U.S. for about three years, was found bleeding on the ground from a gunshot wound. He was rushed to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
While Will County Sheriff’s detectives were investigating Bakare’s shooting death, they began a search for the red Toyota Camry Nance was believed to be driving. When their search came up empty, authorities set up surveillance at Nance’s last known address on the 2200 block of West Acres Road.
Monday morning, deputies walked to the home where the Toyota’s registered owner lived on West Acres Road, and when they got no answer, they went to a house across the street where a relative of the car’s owner lived.
Deputies found blood at that home and then went into both houses, where they found a total of seven people dead.
Evans said investigators have not yet found a link between the victims on West Acres Road and the other two shootings, nor have they found a motive for any of the slayings.
“In many cases like this, we may never know the truth or the motives behind these senseless killings,” Evans said.
Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Dan Jungles said it’s apparent robbery was not a motive in Bakare’s death, noting money was found in the area near his body. Investigators determined Bakare had left his home to buy cigarettes at a local gas station at the time he was killed.
Suspect tried to throw investigators off his trail
While investigating the murders on Monday, investigators learned Nance likely was on his way to Texas.
Investigators believe at some point while he was in Texas, he pulled into a shopping mall parking lot, where he stole the license plates from another car and put them on the Toyota in an attempt to throw investigators off his trail.
Working with federal authorities and other law enforcement officials in Texas, a helicopter was able to locate Nance’s car on Interstate 35. The local sheriff’s office was notified as Nance crossed from Bexar County into Medina County in Texas.
He later pulled into a Chubby’s Travel Center and Valero gas station in Natalia, Texas, where he fled from his vehicle as law enforcement officials arrived on the scene.
U.S. Marshals followed Nance as he ran from the car and rounded the corner of the gas station.
Officers and federal agents chased Nance, who later shot and killed himself.
“Basically cornered,” said Medina County, Texas Sheriff Randy Brown, “and at some point in there, he took his own life.”
“Mr. Nance’s reign of terror on our communities in Will County is now over. With so much sadness that surrounds these incidents, it is time for our communities to come together and heal,” Evans added.
Evans said Nance has an extensive criminal record.
Nance’s prior arrest records indicated that he was arrested for aggravated discharge of a weapon involving a woman. Court records show Nance was out on bond in connection with that 2023 shooting case and was still awaiting trial.
Police said they were also looking for a 3-year-old who was unaccounted for, but was later found with family.
A powerful earthquake hit the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu Tuesday, smashing buildings in the capital, Port Vila, including one housing the embassies of the U.S. and other nations. A witness told Agence France-Presse of bodies seen in the city.
Dan McGarry, a journalist with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project based in Vanuatu, told the Reuters news agency in an interview that police said at least one person had been killed and injured people had been taken to hospital.
“It was the most violent earthquake I’ve experienced in my 21 years living in Vanuatu and in the Pacific Islands. I’ve seen a lot of large earthquakes, never one like this,” he said.
The 7.3-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 35 miles, off the coast of Efate, Vanuatu’s main island, at 12:47 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The ground floor of a building housing the U.S, French and other embassies had been crushed under higher floors, resident Michael Thompson told AFP by satellite phone after posting images of the destruction on social media.
“That no longer exists. It is just completely flat. The top three floors are still holding but they have dropped,” Thompson said.
“If there was anyone in there at the time, then they’re gone.”
Thompson said the ground floor housed the U.S. embassy, but that couldn’t be immediately confirmed.
A photo showed significant damage to the building:
STR / AFP via Getty Images
The United States has closed the embassy until further notice, citing “considerable damage” to the mission, the U.S. embassy in Papua New Guinea said in a message on social media. “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this earthquake,” the embassy said.
The New Zealand High Commission, housed in the same building, suffered “significant damage,” a statement from Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ office said, adding that, “New Zealand is deeply concerned about the significant earthquake in Vanuatu, and the damage it has caused.”
Thompson, who runs a zipline adventure business in Vanuatu, said, “There’s people in the buildings in town. There were bodies there when we walked past.”
A landslide on one road had covered a bus, he said, “so there’s obviously some deaths there.”
The quake also collapsed at least two bridges, and most mobile networks were cut off, Thompson said.
“They’re just cracking on with a rescue operation. The support we need from overseas is medical evacuation and skilled rescue, (the) kind(s) of people that can operate in earthquakes,” he said.
STR / AFP via Getty Images
Video footage posted by Thompson and verified by AFP showed uniformed rescuers and emergency vehicles working on a building where an external roof had collapsed onto a number of parked cars and trucks.
The streets of the city were strewn with broken glass and other debris from damaged buildings, the footage showed.
Nibhay Nand, a Sydney-based pharmacist with businesses across the South Pacific, said he had spoken to staff in Port Vila who said most of the store there had been “destroyed” and that other buildings nearby had “collapsed.”
“We are waiting for everyone to get online to know how devastating and traumatic this will be,” Nand told AFP.
A tsunami warning was issued after the quake, with waves of up to three feet forecast for some areas of Vanuatu, but it was soon lifted by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Earthquakes are common in Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people that straddles the seismic Ring of Fire, an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific Basin.
Vanuatu is ranked as one of the countries most susceptible to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storm damage, flooding and tsunamis, according to the annual World Risk Report.
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