A year after two brothers were fatally shot in the early morning hours during a New Year’s Eve party inside a Kankakee east side house, Kankakee police investigators have been unable to make an arrest.

The early morning New Year’s Day shooting occurred at about 4:05 a.m. at a house in the 1800 block of Pierson Parkway in the Sunnyside Subdivision neighborhood.

Brothers Quaysean Isom, 22, of Kankakee and Tre’Vontae Ellis, 20, of Pembroke Township were pronounced dead at a local hospital.

“Quaysean will be remembered for his smile that would light up the room. He played basketball in high school at St. Anne and Lorenzo Smith. He liked to rap and sing, and he loved family,” according to Isom’s obituary.

According to Ellis’ obituary: “Tre’Vontae will be remembered for being a ‘great’ uncle who was ambitious and very passionate. He played basketball, ‘talked smack’ and dubbed himself ‘best-looking kid.’”

Five other people, including three women, were injured in the incident, police said.

Even though it was reported there were numerous partygoers inside the residence at the time of the shooting, no one at the party cooperated with detectives that day nor the days which have followed.

That same level of cooperation continues to be the case even today.

The cooperation level frustrates investigators, even after a substantial reward was offered by the city of Kankakee, CrimeStoppers and the Kankakee County State’s Attorney’s Office.

“We put out a $30,000 reward and never got anything,” Kankakee Police Chief Chris Kidwell said during an interview in December. “We have a very good idea who the shooter was. We definitely have a suspect in that we’ve had a lot of people point a finger at one individual, but no one – we haven’t had one eyewitness come up and say, ‘I saw him pull the trigger.’”

More than 30 people have been interviewed, a majority of whom attended the party, on more than one occasion, Investigations Commander Avery Ivey said.

“It’s not what we know, it’s what we can prove,” Ivey said. “That’s what it comes down to.”

It is estimated that there may have been about 50 people inside the home when the shooting started.

But when the shooting starts, the tendency is to find safety, Ivey said.

“You see how someone couldn’t see what was going on because you’re hitting the deck, and you’re like trying to get away from bullets,” Ivey said.

Investigators recovered shell casings from four different calibers, Kidwell said.

A gun was recovered outside the home, he added.

“So, we know that there were a lot of guns being fired in that house that night, but we never really have determined a motive for what instigated the shooting,” Kidwell said.

The family of the two victims has been frustrated by the lack of information investigators have received.

“They’re hearing the same thing we are, and some of it is coming from the people we have interviewed,” Kidwell said.

Kidwell said the department has had a few cases in which a person is arrested only to be released when information points to another suspect.

“We’ve had cases where somebody fingers somebody and says, ‘This was the shooter,’ and we arrest them and do what we need to do, and then a week later it’s like, well, that wasn’t him. It happens. It’s happened a couple of times,” Kidwell said.

Every week, Ivey meets with all the investigators to get updates on cases they are working on.

“Sometimes there’s nothing new. Obviously, like on the double from New Year’s, it’s pretty much an impasse,” Kidwell said. “Unless we get somebody that may want to help out.”