Ryan Ostry
Bugle Reporter
@RyanOstry_BR18
rostry@buglenewspapers.com
The night of April 26, everything changed for the Dickerson family.
“Growing up in Naperville, you don’t really have to worry about crime especially as a kid,” said Charmaine Warren, a childhood friend of Candice Dickerson, who was the victim of a random shooting. “The day that I found about it, it was behind shock.”
Candice was going about her everyday life on that spring day, then in a Metro PCS store at 59th and Kedzie in Gage Park, the mother of three was shot in the head while in front of her 10-and-12-year-old sons.
She was shopping for a cell phone for her son for his accomplishments in the classroom when a stray bullet from gang gunfire went through the window of the store, killing the 36-year-old.
“I was just thinking to myself, ‘how (could) a mother with children gets gunned down?’ ” Warren said. “I was taking my son to a baseball lesson and my sister called me and told me it was Candice, and I said that I could not go another day like this and not do anything about it.”
Warren started ‘A Little More Love’, a foundation started on behalf of Dickerson who’s goal is to provide a $500 stipend to any child left behind due to gun violence.
“There are day-to-day needs those boys will have to have and there’s a person that needs to take care of those kids,” Warren said.
Warren also wants to leverage and continue to grow and expand the organization by contacting corporations for support, giving kids internship opportunities, mentorship opportunities and other avenues to succeed in life.
Bar Louie in Bolingbrook recently partnered with A Little More Love for a fundraising event where 20 percent of all net sales that day that went directly back to the organization.
“All of these kids deserve a fighting chance to have success in whatever journey they take on in life,” Warren said. “It’s time to hold people accountable and for these kids to be able to leverage their skillsets, have people show love and care for them and for every single one of them to know that life is not over.”
The organization also keeps the memory of Candice alive for everyone the way Warren remembers her.
“She was never one of the louder ones, but her smile and positivity transited time,” Warren said. “We were childhood best friends, I’m 36 now, so to hear about her death and to have it affect me the way that it has shows how that tragedy happened to a very nice and amazing person.
“She was the nicest, kindest spirit that you would ever know and no one deserves this especially not Candice who affected so many people in a positive manner.”
Two men that were charged in the murder — 24-year-old Marco Zabala who provided the gun to 23-year-old Bryant Mitchell.
Prosecutors said Mitchell and Zabala were targeting rival gang members when Mitchell began shooting on the corner of 59th and Kedzie, and investigators said surveillance video caught Mitchell pointing a gun and firing four shots.
To help support the family of Candice Dickerson, Norwegian American Hospital where Dickerson was brought to following the incident, has established a benevolence fund for her three sons.
So far, they’ve been able to raise more than $15,000.
To donate, visit supportful.com/morelove or Warren’s Facebook page facebook.com/charmaine.warren.35.