Marshall High School holds benefit for basketball player gunned down in Maywood driveway
MAYWOOD, Ill. (WLS) -- Marshall High School is hosting a benefit basketball game Friday to raise money for a reward to find Dede Rainey's killer.
Please note: The video above is from a previous report
The 22-year-old star basketball player was killed in July. She was in her car in the driveway of her Maywood family home in the middle of the afternoon when a man walked up to her an opened fire. Her mother witnessed the shooting, parked just around the corner.
"When I heard the gunshots I jumped out of my car. I started running towards her, she was running towards me saying, Momma, I been shot, I been shot," said Margo Rainey.
She has no idea who he was or why anyone would want to hurt her daughter. She did not get a description of the gunman.
"I was devastated, devastated. I cut my vacation short and came back for the services," said Dorothy Gaters, Marshall basketball coach.
Just four years earlier Rainey was chosen most valuable player on Marshall High School's state championship basketball team. Her twin sister Miyanda also played on that team.
"It's tough. It hurts. This is a different type of pain. I never felt anything like this before," said Miyanda Rainey.
Maywood police said they have made little progress finding the gunman who killed Rainey. That's why the school is putting on a benefit basketball game. Coach Gaters, the winningest high school coach in state history, has invited numerous men and women alumni back to Marshall's gym to play in the game. Several of them have played professionally.
"They all wanted to do something to help," she said.
"I'm struggling to figure out who I am because she was a part of me and she kept me in a safe space. So it's been hard without Dede." Said Tyran Patterson, boyfriend.
Everyone involved in the game, the players coaches and referees, is donating their time. The ticket sales all going to a reward fund to try to find the killer.
The family is also raising money for a scholarship fund in Dede Rainey's name.
Maywood police say they've made little progress in finding whoever killed Rainey. Organizers of tonight's benefit game are hoping that with enough reward money, someone will come forward with information.
