Update: Murder charges filed in slaying of mother hit by stray bullet in Southwest Side cellphone store

hicago police arrested a man accused of killing a 36-year-old woman last month when she was struck by a stray bullet while standing inside a Southwest Side cellphone store with two of her children, authorities said Monday.

Bryant Mitchell, 23, of the 3300 block of West 79th Street, was charged with one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder in the April 26 shooting that killed Candice Dickerson at a Metro PCS store in the city’s Chicago Lawn neighborhood

Dickerson was waiting in the store in the 5900 block of South Kedzie Avenue around 8:05 p.m. when an errant bullet burst through a window and struck her in the face, police said. She was not the intended target.

Police said the mother of three was with two of her young children at the time of the shooting. She was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she was pronounced dead.

Witnesses said they saw two males on the corner firing shots, police said. An ambulance also was struck by the gunfire. The suspects fled on foot, police said.

In late April after the shooting, Dickerson’s friends told the Tribune she worked as a pharmacy technician at Norwegian American Hospital in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. She started out at the hospital as a volunteer.

“I’m just lost for words because, I just, why? Such a beautiful person, such a dedicated worker, such a loving mother,” said a former co-worker, Patricia Lewis-Sanders.

Lewis-Sanders said she met Dickerson while working at the hospital.

Dickerson’s supervisor at the hospital, Tina Spriggs, said she was always on time, the person everyone went to with questions, and she once received a “role model” award.

Dickerson loved gathering with her co-workers or friends to enjoy a good meal or snack — whether her supervisor’s spaghetti or a banana Laffy Taffy, Lewis-Sanders said.

But most of all, Dickerson loved her three boys, her friends said.

“She sacrificed anything she had for them,” Spriggs said.

Tashonia James said she met Dickerson in the second grade at Longwood Elementary School in Naperville.

“We were inseparable,” James said.

The two had class together, rode bikes back and forth between homes and went on their first cruise together, where they danced at a disco. They were even pregnant at the same time.

“As we got older, we didn’t get together as often as either of us would like because we had children, jobs, responsibilities,” James said. “But when we got together, we were never apart. It never went away.

“She was the most considerate, loving and loyal friend that I’ve ever had,” James said.

In their last conversation, Dickerson told James she missed her and was thinking of her when she watched the movie “Girls Trip.” She said the two needed to take one of those trips.

“I’m just so sad that we never will,” James said.

The Norwegian American Hospital Foundation has a fund used to help NAH employees and patients, including Dickerson’s family.

The suspect is expected to appear before a judge for a bail hearing Tuesday.