SAN ANTONIO, Texas – In a city with fewer than 1,300 people, the arrival of any newcomer in Natalia is bound to have people there talking.
As of Tuesday morning, though, many were hearing for the first time about one person in particular – Romeo Nance, a 23-year-old mass murder suspect on the run from Illinois, who ended up there.
Medina County Sheriff Randy Brown told news crews Monday night that his agency had received a call around 8:30 p.m. about a chase heading his way.
The subject of the chase, which involved multiple agencies, was Nance.
He was accused of killing eight people and wounding one other earlier this week, in and around the city of Joliet, IL.
Soon after his arrival in Natalia, though, Nance used his gun at least once more, to kill himself, Brown said.
Afterward, officers and deputies roped off the area where it happened, Chubby’s Travel Center near Interstate 35, for several hours.
It is still unclear where Nance may have been heading, what happened after he left Illinois, or how he ended up in Natalia.
Emily Del Toro, who was visiting family in that city, wonders, too.
“Everyone here pretty much knows everybody here, so I really don’t understand why he would come this way,” she said.
Del Toro was one of several people who stopped by Tuesday morning, after Chubby’s seemed to get back to business as usual.
She said she grew up in Natalia and never expected to hear news like this.
“It’s a quiet little city,” she said. “It’s very shocking that this happened.”
Most people who stopped by the business were only hearing about the incident for the first time.
Although police and sheriff’s deputies had flooded into the gas station and roped off the area with yellow crime scene tape, it appeared most people in the city missed the entire commotion.
As of Tuesday morning, local authorities had not released any additional details on the incident.
Medina County Sheriff Randy Brown referred all inquiries to the Texas Rangers, who he said were leading the local portion of the investigation.
However, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Texas Rangers, told KSAT 12 News that the Medina County Sheriff’s Office should be the source of any new updates.
The murders in Illinois are being handled by investigators in that state.