BRUNSWICK, Ga. – A Brunswick mother is on a desperate quest to get justice for her son’s murder.
“I just want justice, and turn yourself in. This pain that I feel has broken my whole family. The whole community and children are hurting over this,” a tearful Kimberly Ellis told News4JAX on Thursday.
Her son My’Kal Ellis, a 16-year-old football player at Brunswick High School with dreams of making it to the NFL, was killed in June. His family said they do not believe the teen was the intended target.
The Brunswick Police Department said Ellis was walking home from a friend’s house when he was shot and killed in front of his home on Johnston Street.
Police were soon searching for Breon Hartley, 21, of Jacksonville. Hartley is wanted on murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime warrants in connection to the shooting that left Ellis dead.
Days after Ellis was killed, Diandra Hightower, 37, was arrested and charged with tampering with evidence and making false statements to police in connection to Ellis’s death. She was accused of aiding the alleged shooter and had been ordered to stay in jail since her arrest.
But Ellis’s family said on Thursday they got a phone call from the jail to let them know Hightower was released on Wednesday on her own recognizance so that she could give birth at a hospital in Savannah.
Heartbreak has now turned to anger and frustration because her son’s alleged killer is still on the run and no one is coming forward with information about where he is. And it doesn’t appear that police have turned up any new leads.
“I’m hearing nothing about my baby. I walk here every morning just to get answers because this is where he was killed in the street,” Kimberly Ellis said.
After the shots were fired, Kimberly Ellis said she ran out of the house and saw a gruesome sight she said she could never unsee.
“I found my baby out here. And every time I go to sleep, I see that every night and every morning. I can’t function. I can’t [explitive] think. He was 16. He was 16,” she said.
Days after the murder, police tracked leads to a home on the next block where neighbors said Hartley was staying with Hightower. Hartley was nowhere to be found when police arrived, but detectives said they found evidence that Hightower aided him by tampering with evidence. She was arrested and had been ordered to stay in jail until it was time for her to answer to criminal charges related to the murder. But Ellis’s family said they got a call from the jail letting them know Hightower was being released without having to post a bond so that she could travel to the hospital. The family said they were told Hightower had a complicated pregnancy.
“But what about my baby? What about justice?” Kimberly Ellis said.
Kimberly Ellis said they went to both the police department and the prosecutor’s office to confirm Hightower’s release. After it was confirmed, she said she felt it was unfair.
If anyone knows where Hartley is, they are urged to contact the police.
Not only is Hartley wanted by authorities in Brunswick, but he is also wanted by Jacksonville police in connection to an assault case.