Video from a Joliet residence shows the moment that a man was shot and wounded, allegedly by Romeo Nance, who police say also shot and killed seven family members and another man Sunday before fleeing the area and killing himself as authorities closed in on him in Texas on Monday evening.
In the video obtained by the Sun-Times, a red Toyota Camry connected to Nance was seen driving around 4:20 p.m. Sunday on the 200 block of Davis Road and the driver is seen opening fire.
Nance allegedly fired nine shots in about five seconds as the 42-year-old man was walking back to his home, the video shows. He suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.
Curtis Ellis, 56, has lived on the block for nearly four decades and was watching an NFL playoff game between the Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers when he heard the shots ring out.
“I start hearing gunshots coming from outside,” Ellis told the Sun-Times. “I opened the door and saw my neighbor was limping, so I figured he had got shot.”
Ellis called 911 and checked surveillance footage to see what led to the shooting.
He says he was able to give police the license plate of the Toyota, which was connected to the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Toyosi Bakare at the Pheasant Run Apartments in unincorporated Joliet Township about 10 minutes later.
The two shootings were not connected and both incidents appeared to be random, the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities identified the red Toyota that was known to be used by Nance as being connected to the shootings of the two men, said Dan Jungles, deputy chief of the Will County sheriff’s office, at a news conference Tuesday.
When deputies couldn’t find the car, they set up surveillance Sunday night in the 2200 block of West Acres Road, where the car’s registered owner lived.
After releasing the car’s description to the public, deputies visited the registered owner’s home but didn’t get a response. They then went to a home across the street that investigators knew Nance often occupied and noticed blood on the front door and “fresh” gunshot markings.
Deputies made their way inside the home and found two bodies. A team of law enforcement officials then entered the other home and found five more bodies, Jungles said.
“I captured a serial killer on my video that I didn’t even know I was doing,” Ellis said.
Ellis says his neighbor was “just an innocent bystander trying to get water bottles out of his truck” when Nance “comes in and just tries to kill him.”
“Out of the nine people shot, my neighbor is the only one to survive, and I’m happy for that, but I pray for the family,” Ellis said.
