Family of murdered Ellis Cox says friends who don't speak out 'are as bad as those who shot him'

Ellis Cox's mum Carolyn Cox and his Aunt Julie O'Toole spoke about his death and the impact it has had

Friends of a murdered teenager who don't speak up to help police are "just as bad as his killers", his family have said.

Ellis Cox, 19, died in hospital after being shot close to Taskers on the Liver Industrial Estate in Liverpool at around 10.50pm on 23 June, by what police describe as an unknown group.

Detectives hunting the killers say Ellis was not linked to any criminality, and he was not the target of the shooting.

They also believe his death could be linked to an ongoing dispute between a group of the teen’s associates and a rival street gang.

Appealing for help catch his killers, Ellis' family say they believe a "no grass" culture is holding back the police’s investigations.

His aunt, Julie O'Toole, said: “We thought that grass culture was a kid thing, but it’s not. It’s a lot to consider.

"These people don’t have the same set of morals as us. These friends who are not speaking are just as bad as the people who shot Ellis."

Ellis' mum Carolyn Cox says the people Ellis was with have not even offered their condolences.

“We haven’t heard anything from them," she said. “No one has even come to the door to say sorry or that they loved Ellis.

"That speaks volumes. These so-called friends are from completely different worlds. That is not how Ellis was brought up.

"If these people Ellis was with were his friends, they need to tell us anything they know to bring his killers to justice.”

Dad Chris Wood echoes the call: “I wouldn’t even know what these friends look like. Ellis was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong crowd of people as far as I am concerned.

"It’s strange that so many people have come forward and said they loved Ellis, but no one will say anything. Someone must know something from someone.”

He added: “At the end of the day, if these friends don’t say anything then it will just carry on to someone else.

"Why would you not want these people out of the world? There’s no reason why someone would shoot Ellis, so the people he was with have done something.

"This problem isn’t going to go away because whoever they have a problem with is still out there. Where does it end?"

On the day he died, Ellis had met up for a bike ride with a new group of people who he had originally known at school, as his usual friends were not around.

After borrowing a cycle from his Aunt Julie's house he set off.

Detectives believe Ellis was with four people on the day of his death.

Detective Chief Inspector Steve McGrath, who is leading the investigation, said: “He had known them since potentially school days but they were not close.

"He had got back in touch with them in the weeks or months before his death.”

Originally planning to go to Southport, Ellis and the group instead got the train from Aintree to Ormskirk.

Officers tracing their movements believe the group hung out around the Edge Hill University campus.

They then got the train back to Maghull before riding through Melling and Aintree, passing through the industrial estate towards the Liverpool Loop Line - known locally as the Ralla - which led up to where he lived.

His mum Carolyn says its not normally somewhere he would have been at night: “We used to cut through there to go to school, but he would never go there in the dark,”

Dad Chris agrees: “It’s a one off that he was there. He would have gone around.”

DCI McGrath says that some of Ellis’ associates that he was with on the night are linked to criminality, “at most street level drug dealing in the local area”.

But he added that there were other incidents in the Walton area in the months before Ellis’ death including other firearms discharges.

"I can’t say all of these are linked but that is part of the investigation at the moment," he said.

However, he said investigations so far do not suggest Ellis’ friends had access to firearms.

DCI McGrath added that there is no evidence to suggest Ellis’ group was ambushed by the gunman.

Instead, the officer said it appeared the suspect group, made up of at least two people riding on two electric bikes, arrived at the same time as Ellis’ associates.

The officer said: “We can’t rule out that people weren’t visiting that area looking for people at the moment.

"I would say at the moment there is no evidence of people waiting for an individual to come.”

A number of bullets from a self-loading pistol were fired towards Ellis’ group, hitting Ellis several times and one of his associates in the foot.

In the aftermath, the two groups left the scene in opposite directions, with Ellis’ friends leaving him at the scene with his catastrophic injuries.

The detectives said he believes his officers have identified the four people Ellis was with and spoken to them, but added they are withholding information about what happened.

The force has made four arrests in connection with Ellis' murder, including a 17-year-old boy from West Derby and a 61-year-old from Huyton.

DCI McGrath says that whoever pulled the trigger needs to be stopped now.

"I want to do as much as we possibly can just to help the family, what we also want to do is to make sure that these individuals can't do this again in the future."

For his family the loss of Ellis is still raw two months on from his death, and they want anyone with information to come forward now.

His aunt Julie says that in some ways it hasn't hit home: "I think the fact that we're all still in shock, it doesn't feel real. And Carolyn was saying earlier the only way that you can cope, and that keeps us going, is denial and I think the other thing is knowing that we have to stay strong and find who's responsible for taking Ellis from us in such a cruel and vile way.

"The last eight weeks have been hell, and life's never going to be the same ever again.

"What we do know is that if this goes on for years, and these people are walking around like nothing matters, and that Ellis doesn't matter, then we just need to keep in our minds that he does."

His mum, like all his family, feels his loss acutely.

"I should have been there, if I would have heard the gun I could have run to him, because it was literally a few minutes up from home. So that I have that guilt, that I should have been there to save him, or to help him, or to hold him and not let him be by himself."

She adds: "He was genuinely a very good boy. He was just amazing so what gives these people a right to just go round with guns taking children?" said Carolyn.

"Parents shouldn't have to bury their children.

"Come forward - anybody who knows anything. Ellis didn't deserve this. We shouldn't be sitting here without Ellis. So if they've got a conscience they need to speak up."