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Emergency vehicles at the scene in Joliet, Illinois
Photo: Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / AP
The local police chief spoke of the worst crime scenes he had ever seen in his career: A bloodbath occurred on Sunday in the city of Joliet in the northeast of the US state of Illinois.
23-year-old Romeo N. is said to have shot seven people at two crime scenes.
The police discovered five dead in one residential building and two dead in another across the street.
On Sunday, a man was found with gunshot wounds at another location in the same district, who later died from his injuries.
Whether this case is related to the other homicides is still being determined.
The alleged perpetrator was initially on the run.
After the crime on Monday, the police pursued the suspect over a distance of almost 1,700 kilometers.
N. is said to have shot himself near a gas station in San Antonio, Texas.
The police are still investigating the circumstances.
The perpetrator's possible motives remain unclear, but his relationship to the victims seems to be clear.
Joliet Police Chief Williams Evans said all seven victims - five women between the ages of 14 and 47 and two men between the ages of 35 and 38 - were part of the same family and related to the perpetrator.
Two of those killed were teenagers.
Multiple killings are not isolated cases
Although N. had a criminal record, his motives for the crime were unclear.
»We can't look inside his head.
“We just have no idea why he did that,” Evans told reporters.
According to the AP news agency, this is the fourth multiple killing this year in the USA.
At least 20 people were killed in less than a month.
Multiple homicide refers to crimes in which four or more people die violently within 24 hours.
The latest such incident occurred on Sunday near Chicago, where a man is said to have killed his wife and three adult daughters.
ala/AP