The smell of burnt metal lingered even on this blustery Friday as Elk Grove police and members of the Cook County Major Crimes Taskforce gathered evidence from the wreckage. It was where police say a man set his vehicle on fire then shot himself.
"My son woke me up and says there was a lot of police out there, and I came outside and watched and I saw the car was on fire, and I don't know what's going on," said neighbor Luis Rodrigues.
Police were called to the Boardwalk Condominium complex just past 7:30 a.m. in response to calls of shots fired. They forcibly entered basement unit 109 and found the bodies of a 24-year old man and a woman in her 40s. Friends told reporters she was Nancy Johnson, and the dead man was her son, Kenny Sova. Police said they had been killed by Kenny Johnson, Nancy's husband and Sova's stepfather.
"We believe this was domestic-related," said Elk Grove Deputy Police Chief Michael Kirkpatrick. "The incident is contained."
The quiet complex is only a few hundred yards from the police station.
The daycare center adjacent to the park where Johnson drove his vehicle was placed on lockdown for a few hours Friday until it was clear the police were not looking for anyone.
Officers were walking toward the van when they heard a rifle shot from inside it, and then heard several pops as the van caught fire. Police say Kenny Johnson killed himself after setting the van on fire.
"Scared me, thinking that I've been out here for 31 years, and I saw this happen right behind where I lived. It deeply hurt me," neighbor John Nowaskowski said.
Autopsies for the victims are scheduled for Saturday.
