John Ellis died 4 years after mass shooting in Wilkinsburg

After he was shot and paralyzed in a mass shooting in Wilkinsburg four years ago, John Ellis made it a priority on most days to send “good morning” messages to all of his friends who were active on Facebook.

In recent weeks, his mother, Aleta Livsey, said he was unable to do so after being hospitalized for an infection.

She heard from his friends that they missed seeing his notes.

“I think he knew everybody in Pittsburgh,” she said. “He was like a ray of sunshine.”

Ellis, 51, died with his mom holding his hand on Tuesday at UPMC Mercy hospital, where he’d been since Friday.

“I told him I’ll see him again,” she said Wednesday. “He’s not suffering any more. He was tired.”

Ellis was paralyzed from the waist down in the March 9, 2016, shooting at a cookout in Wilkinsburg that killed five adults and an unborn child.

He didn’t know the people that lived in the Franklin Avenue home, but he had been staying with his brother next door. He was invited over for the cookout to celebrate the unseasonably warm evening.

After his injuries, Ellis was in and out of the hospital at least a couple times each year, Livsey said.

He lived with her for two years at her Elliot home but got his own apartment in McKees Rocks in August 2018.

When the pandemic hit in March, Ellis moved back in with his mom.

Despite what he’d been through, Ellis remained in good spirits, Livsey said.

“He loved life,” she said.

Livsey described Ellis as someone who enjoyed making people happy, telling jokes and making others laugh.

“He always had us going,” she said.

In the years since the shooting, Livsey said, her son filled his time with television and movies, playing games on his phone and doing word searches.

“I got him hooked on ‘The Young and the Restless,’” she said.

Eddie Coleman, Ellis’ godfather, described him as a quiet kid growing up who was well-liked, well-mannered and stayed out of trouble.

He called him a joy to be around.

Ellis loved football, both the Steelers and the Tennessee Titans, Coleman said.

After the shooting, Ellis kept his spirits up by having visitors.

“He liked having people around him. That’s what kept him going,” Coleman said. “But when he got tired, he’d let you know.”

In January, trial began for the two men charged in the shooting, Cheron Shelton and Robert Thomas.

After six days of testimony and four days of deliberations, the jury acquitted them on Feb. 14.

After the verdict, Livsey said, Ellis didn’t eat for a week.

“He was sick to his heart,” she said. But, she continued, he also said, “God has the last word in it.”

Coleman said Ellis kept his faith in God about what happened.

After the trial, Ellis and his mom sent a dozen roses to Assistant District Attorney Lisa Pellegrini, who was one of the prosecutors on the case to thank her for the work she did.

“To have the verdict turn out the way it was, he felt that it was an injustice — not just for him but for the other people killed,” Coleman said.

In a statement, Mike Manko, the spokesman for the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, extended his sympathy to Ellis’ family.

“He was extremely helpful during the trial, and his courage and dignity through all of this is something to be admired,” Manko said.

Because the jury returned a verdict on the initial charges related to Ellis’ injuries, Manko said, his office cannot move forward on any additional charges stemming from his death.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been made but are being handled by the Robinson Funeral Home on Perrysville Avenue on Pittsburgh’s Northside.