A Shorewood man has been charged with murder in connection with a January shooting in Jolietwhich authorities called “Reign of Terror” about the third largest city in Illinois.
Jon W. Hansen, 24, was arrested Friday, according to a statement from the Will County Sheriff’s Office. He was charged with three counts of murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a firearm.
During the Jan. 21 shooting, Romeo Nance, 23, is suspected of killing eight people, including his mother, aunt, uncle, brother and three sisters, who were found in two homes on both sides of West Acres Road. Toyosi Bakare, 28, died in unincorporated Joliet Township. Nance died the next day from a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a standoff with US marshals in Texas.
Shortly afterward, the sheriff’s office said it determined Hansen was with Nance before the random shootings of Bakare and another man, who was injured in the 200 block of Davis Street.
In a Jan. 27 interview, Hansen told detectives he was with Nance when Bakare was shot and killed, the sheriff’s office said. Hansen also admitted to throwing a gun Nance gave him after the shooting into the DuPage River near his residence, but refused to give police any more information.
A Plainfield Fire Department diver located the pistol Hansen allegedly threw into the river on Feb. 5 by dragging a magnet along the bottom of the riverbed near Westshore Drive and Picnic Street in Shorewood, the sheriff’s office said.
Hansen was arrested Friday “without incident” after detectives obtained a no-bail warrant, the sheriff’s office said.
Hansen is the second person charged in the mass shooting. Nance’s 21-year-old girlfriend was charged with obstructing the investigation into Nance after telling authorities she did not have his phone number in January.
rjohnson@chicagotribune.com
