Family Of Slain 9-Year-Old Jeremiah Ellis Addresses Murder Charges In Skokie Killing

SKOKIE, IL — Family members of Jeremiah Ellis, the 9-year-old boy fatally shot in a Skokie apartment earlier this month, gathered at the Skokie Police Department Friday to address the charges filed against three people in connection with his killing and the wounding of his younger brother.

"I'm glad we got justice," said Ellis's father, Cecil Tousant. "My baby was the smile the brightens up the city. He loved TikTok. He just wanted to be a kid."

Ellis had turned 9 just over 48 hours before his death on the floor of his grandmother's Skokie apartment. He loved dancing, basketball, being with his family, seafood and cabbage, his father said.

"We fought to tell him, 'No, no, you ain't going to your grandma's house this weekend, but he managed to get his grandma, 'Bring him, bring him,'" Tousant recalled. "It was just the smile of him. He loved his nanny he wanted to be with his nanny so much."

Sentoria Williams Adams, the boy's grandmother, was asleep on the couch as the boys watched television on the floor in front of her at the time of the shooting, according to prosecutors.

Adams was awoken by gunfire in daze, initially unsure what had just happened as she initially noticed a damaged fan, she told reporters.

"I grabbed Jeremiah, my arm tucked under him and I felt blood going through my fingers," Adams said. "I started yelling, 'Call the police, call the police.' ... They did arrive and I was telling them it was shots, but I don't think they [were] that convinced it was shots right away, but by me sitting on that floor holding Jeremiah, and I had pumped him some in his chest."

Two shooters — 16-year-old Christian Anderson and 22-year-old Richard Banks — are accused of firing at least 35 shots into the room from two separate guns, striking Ellis 11 times and 5-year-old brother in the foot, authorities said.

"As I'm sitting on the floor, I'm looking around, and I look toward my window, and it had an end table there and a lamp and my computer was sitting there, and you could see the burnt holes through the shade of the lamp," his grandmother said. "I knew then it was bullets."

Adams said Ellis had hoped to visit the Skokie Water Playground the following day.

"He had just turned 9 and with all the rub about someone's going to shoot my husband, we didn't go over to the birthday party, so I told him he can come over, and we could do something together. Earlier that day, I barbecued outside the home, and we just hung out there."

Adams said the shooters knew there were children in the room on the night of her grandson's killing.

"To know that someone would come and shoot my home up with my family in there, and considering the people that did that," she said. "I'm always barbecuing, I'm always cooking, I always have my grandkids over, they knew that we were in that house as a family, and they've been putting threats on my life since August the 23rd. They've been putting threats on our life for an incident that did not involve us at all."

Authorities believe the shooting was orchestrated by Tamesha Clark, a 32-year-old Chicago woman whose boyfriend, Ralph Banks, was shot and killed on Interstate 290 on the West Side in August 2021.

"Ralph Banks, I loved truly. I raised him in my home with, at the time, I had four kids. Ralph Banks and his mom and brother lived with us for 10 years," Adams said Friday. "It's no way in hell I would allow someone to tell me that they did something to him and not say anything to anyone or let anyone know that someone's trying to hurt him."

Stanley Jones, Ellis's uncle and Banks's cousin, said he could not be sure if the two young boys were targeted, but attributed Clark's action's to "evilness." He said he was aware of threats, but did not take it seriously at the time.

"It hit our family real hard. It hit us close to home," Jones said. "It's a tragedy that the girlfriend of my beloved little cousin Ralph Banks would orchestrate an act of violence against his family, something we as a family know he wouldn't have approved of."

Jones said he felt sorry for Clark and her family.

"She's got to deal with this. She's got to suffer, which she will. And I thank the Skokie police for it," he said. "The 16-year-old, little guy who allowed them to manipulate his mind to go do something like that, I feel sorry for his family and everybody that love him and I hope they can get back up."

Read More: Chicago Woman Masterminded Murder Of 9-Year-Old In Skokie: Prosecutors