Six days have passed since a gunman walked into a corner store in Chester and shot and killed a 27-year-old man. The victim’s mother is now speaking out and questioning why anyone would target her son. NBC10’s Aaron Baskerville sat down with her.
Police arrested a man accused of shooting and killing a father at a convenience store in Chester, Pennsylvania, back in July.
Haneef Melton, 19, of Chester, was arrested and charged in the murder of 27-year-old Dontae Dickerson.
On July 2, 2024, around 11:15 a.m., police responded to Lucky 7 convenience store on 1100 Morton Avenue in Chester City for a report of a shooting. When they arrived, they found a man, later identified as Dickerson, on the floor inside the business suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.
Dickerson was later pronounced dead and his death was ruled a homicide.
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
Investigators recovered surveillance footage from the store. The video showed a man entering the store around 11:05 a.m. and paying for an item. The video then shows the man walking behind Dickerson as he waits in line, pulling out a gun and shooting him in the back of the head, police said.
The gunman then walked out of the store and fled south on Elsinore Place, according to investigators.
Investigators later identified the gunman as Melton. He was arrested and charged on Wednesday, Aug. 28 with criminal homicide, murder in the first and third degree, firearms not to be carried without a license and possession of a weapon.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
Melton’s bail was denied and he is being held in custody at Delaware County Prison. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 7, 2024, according to court documents.
Online court records don’t list an attorney who could speak on Melton’s behalf. While Melton is in custody, investigators have not revealed a possible motive in the shooting.
Dickerson was the father of a 7-year-old girl. Dickerson’s mother, Mickette Cephas, told NBC10 he was making a routine trip to the store at the time of his death.
“Just merely in the store, early in the morning with flip flops on and shorts, getting something and you took my son’s life. I don’t know what to think or what to feel,” Cephas told NBC10 back in July. “He’s not into no streets. He’s not into that.”
Cephas said her son was known as a jokester and a dancer.
“I cry, I scream, I get my moments, but I don’t get a chance to sit down and mourn him,” she said. “I got to keep moving.”
