Jordan Keaire Dwayne Ellerbe was a 16-year-old Black/African American male from Wilmington, Delaware, whose life ended in gunfire on January 23, 2015. Jordan was spending time with friends on the front porch of a home on North Broom Street in Wilmington’s Hilltop neighborhood, reportedly listening to music, when shots were fired at the group. Jordan was struck and killed, while two other young people were wounded but survived.
His death left his family mourning a teenager who was remembered by relatives and friends as an important part of a large extended family.
The violence surrounding the Broom Street house did not end with Jordan’s death. Within days, gunfire again struck the same residence while people were gathered there mourning him, leaving three people wounded. Jordan’s killing would later be described by Delaware prosecutors and Wilmington police as a pivotal event in an escalating conflict between two Wilmington groups known as Shoot to Kill, or STK, and Only My Brothers, or OMB. The rivalry became associated with a prolonged series of shootings, retaliatory attacks and killings in Wilmington, including the 2016 murder of 15-year-old Brandon Wingo. Authorities said dozens of arrests eventually resulted from violence connected to the feud.
For years, however, no one was publicly charged with Jordan’s murder. The homicide became a cold case, but Wilmington police continued investigating. The case was originally handled by Detective Mike Gifford and was later taken over by Detective Devon Jones. Investigators continued developing information in cooperation with the Delaware Department of Justice, eventually building a case against Wilmington resident Oliver “Butter” Henry, who had been 17 when Jordan was killed.
Nearly eight years after the shooting, investigators made a major breakthrough. In January 2023, Wilmington police arrested Henry, then 24. Prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder in Jordan’s killing. He was also indicted on three counts of attempted first-degree murder involving the shooting or attempted shooting of Benjamin Smith and Troy Harvin. Following his arrest, Henry was held at the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution on $2.5 million cash bail. Delaware officials emphasized that the arrest resulted from years of continued investigative work rather than the case simply being abandoned when it initially went cold.
The prosecution ultimately ended with a guilty plea rather than a murder trial. On March 6, 2024, Henry pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as a lesser-included offense of the original first-degree murder charge. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed the three attempted first-degree murder counts involving the other victims. Second-degree murder carried a mandatory minimum prison term of 15 years, and prosecutors agreed to recommend that Henry receive no more than 20 years of incarceration.
At sentencing, the Superior Court heard from prosecutors, Henry’s defense, Henry himself and Jordan’s mother before imposing a sentence of 50 years of imprisonment, suspended after Henry serves 20 years for decreasing levels of supervision. Henry later appealed, but the Delaware Supreme Court reviewed the proceedings and affirmed the Superior Court’s judgment on March 13, 2025. The decision left his conviction and sentence intact.
Jordan’s homicide therefore remained unresolved publicly for almost eight years before Henry’s arrest finally brought a criminal prosecution. What began as the sudden shooting of a teenager sitting with friends on a Wilmington porch ultimately became one of the cases authorities repeatedly pointed to when describing the devastating cycle of retaliatory gun violence that followed in the city. Years after Jordan’s death, the investigation concluded with Henry accepting responsibility through his second-degree murder plea and receiving a sentence requiring him to serve 20 years in prison before the suspended portion and supervision provisions take effect.
