WILKINSBURG (KDKA) — One of the people who survived the mass shooting in Wilkinsburg said he was dejected and nearly brought to tears after the accused killer was found not guilty.
John Ellis was wounded in the shooting in 2016 when five adults and an unborn child were killed.
Last week, the jury found Cheron Shelton not guilty of murder.
Shelton was the lone defendant.
Ellis waited nearly four years for justice after that fateful night on March 9, 2016, but all that changed when Shelton was found not guilty.
“I didn’t want to interview that day,” Ellis said. “I was furious,” Ellis told KDKA’s Bob Allen said.
(Photo Credit: KDKA)
Ellis was shot three times while sitting at a table in the backyard.
He says a third bullet caused a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
He believes the assistant DA presented a good cause, and can’t understand why or how the jury made its decision.
“I just shook my head,” Ellis said. “What did the jury not see? Somebody did something to us.”
Ellis lived next door to the house where the shooting happened.
He was invited to the cookout, not knowing it would change his life forever.
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Ellis survived, but the independence he once had is gone.
“I can’t walk and stuff no more,” Ellis said. “I can’t do the things I was doing before.
Allen: Do you feel like you’ve been robbed?
Ellis: Robbed of my life.
Despite his condition, Ellis said he holds no animosity toward the shooter.
He says he’s leaving their fate to a higher power.
“I’m not out for revenge,” Ellis said. “I don’t hate anybody. They’ll have to answer to him.”