Damien Willis

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Feuds drive Wilmington's cycle of gang violence, despite dozens of charges

People gather at a makeshift memorial on the porch of a house on the 200 block of N. Broom Street closest to the spot where 16-year-old Jordan Ellerbe was shot and killed in gunfire that wounded two others early Friday evening in January 2015. [Photo: William Bretzger/The News Journal]

Jordan Ellerbe was the first teen gunned down in a killing that state prosecutors say catalyzed a rivalry between two Wilmington street gangs.

He wasn’t the last to die.

Next was Ryan Schneese. Then Brandon Wingo.

Then Tyreek Scott.

Kaden Young.

Yaseem Powell.

David Bailey.

And, most recently, Jeremy Tunnell.

More were injured in the warring gunfire that spiked after Ellerbe’s death three years ago: Isaiah Lecompte, Elijah Thomas, Zaire Dollard, and Zamyr Garcia, who remains paralyzed from the neck down.

Brittany Horn, Xerxes Wilson and Esteban Parra, writing for the Delaware News Journal, track a surge of gang violence victims in Delaware with social media posts and court records because police won’t release information on those who survive shootings. Read their extraordinary coverage HERE.