Police have filed charges against a man they say is responsible for killing a 16-year-old in 2015, a murder prosecutors have said created a martyr in a war among teen gangs that saw dozens of shootings over the intervening years in Wilmington.
In his short life, Jordan Ellerbe was never accused of being in a gang, but references to his name could be found graffitied on Wilmington streets and on the social media posts of locals teens in the years after he was shot in the head in Wilmington’s Hilltop neighborhood.
He was killed on a Friday night in January 2015. As he and other teens listened to music on the porch of a three-story apartment house on the 200 block of N. Broom St, gunfire broke out. The kids scrambled. One teen, 17, was struck in the chest, another 16-year-old was hit in the arm.
Ellerbe was hit in the head. A woman who lived in the home told a reporter she cradled him as he died.
Two days later, people gathered at a memorial for Ellerbe on the same front porch and were again sprayed with bullets. Some 18 rounds were fired from a vehicle driving by the home, neighbors said at the time, injuring two teens and a 21-year-old who had gathered among teddy bears and candles to honor Ellerbe.
Prosecutors have said Ellerbe’s was one of the first murders in a string of shootings between the Shoot to Kill and Only My Brothers gangs, which investigators described as groups of teens that shot insults online and bullets in the city’s streets.
The following years saw an unprecedented crackdown by prosecutors on teen violence in the city. Years after Ellerbe’s killing, prosecutors indicted more than a dozen local youths on charges that included multiple murders and felony gang participation in 2018.
In the process, prosecutors said they slowed bloodshed in the city, while defense attorneys accused Wilmington Police of overlooking the defendants’ constitutional rights and prosecutors of casting an unfairly wide net seeking to compel indicted teens to flip on their former gang members. Court proceedings stemming from that indictment continue to this day.
Ellerbe’s name was a frequent part of those subsequent court proceedings like the murder trial that followed the death of Brandon Wingo, a 15-year-old brazenly killed as he walked home from school on a sunny day months after Ellerbe’s death, according to prosecutors and court witness.
Social media posts introduced as evidence in that trial included hashtags and statements about Ellerbe. Purported STK gang members’ profiles frequently sported #JU41, meaning J’s up for life — a tribute to Ellerbe.
In those trials, Ellerbe’s name was uttered by witnesses, investigators and prosecutors seeking to establish motive. But to this day, those court proceedings never sought to answer the specific question of who killed Ellerbe.
FROM 2015: Disrespect: Guns, teens and death in Wilmington
Now, nearly eight years to the day of his killing, court proceedings aimed at holding a 24-year-old man responsible for Ellerbe’s death will begin.
Oliver Henry faces a single charge of first-degree murder for Ellerbe’s shooting as well as three additional charges of attempted murder. Two additional charges stem from the same shooting that killed Ellerbe, and one is for a shooting earlier that month, according to court documents.
Henry was previously charged with lesser crimes in the 2018 indictment that reflected prosecutors cracking down on the rival gangs. He pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy and participation in the Only My Brothers gang. In 2018, he was sentenced to 360 days in prison. Court records do not yet indicate who will represent him in the Ellerbe murder case.
GUILTY PLEA: Teen gang rivalry in Wilmington sends another to prison
In the weeks and years after Ellerbe’s death, his family and authorities said they don’t believe Ellerbe was the target of the shooting. He grew up in Wilmington and lived with his sisters and mother in the Hilltop neighborhood. A freshman at A.I. du Pont High School, he played basketball and was known among friends for his sharp attire and sneaker collection.
“He was just a sweet kid,” said Jazmine Jordan, his sister, shortly after he was killed.
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.
