Police in Illinois are searching for a suspect in the fatal shooting of eight people

Police in Joliet, Illinois, were searching Monday for a suspect in the fatal shootings of eight people, seven of whom were found dead in two homes on the same block on the city's east side, authorities said.

The suspect, Romeo Nance, 23, was believed to be driving a red Toyota Camry and “should be considered armed and dangerous,” Joliet police said in a statement posted on Facebook.

Authorities said they discovered seven of the bodies on Monday — two in one home and five in another — and believed a fatal shooting on Sunday afternoon about four miles southeast was related.

Police were notified of the seven bodies by the Will County Sheriff's Office just after noon on Monday, Joliet Police Chief William Evans said at a news conference Monday evening. The motive for the killings was unclear, but police believe Mr. Nance knew the victims, who appeared to be related, Chief Evans said.

Authorities said the suspect's last known address was one of the homes where the bodies were found. They would not provide the ages of the seven victims or further details on how they might have known the suspect.

“I've been a police officer for 29 years,” he said. “This is probably the worst crime scene I've ever been associated with.”

Daniel Jungles, deputy chief of the Will County Sheriff's Office, said at the news conference that deputies responded Sunday to a shooting at an apartment building in unincorporated Juliet that may be linked to the other seven victims. There, officers found a man with a gunshot wound to the head, he said. The man, Toyosi Bakare, 28, was taken to a hospital, where he died from his injuries, Deputy Jungles said.

Officers linked the fatal shooting to an episode about 10 minutes earlier in which a 42-year-old man was shot in the leg and suffered “non-life-threatening injuries,” a police spokesman said. press release from the Sheriff's Office. Mr. Nance's red Toyota was seen at both crime scenes, according to the statement, which described the victims as unrelated and that Sunday's shootings were “random in nature.”

About 35 miles southwest of Chicago, Joliet is the third most populous city in Illinois, with more than 150,000 residents. “We are doing everything we can to bring this person to justice,” Deputy Jungles said at the news conference, encouraging residents to “remain vigilant.”