Former Chicago high school basketball star murdered outside her home: 'She always did the right thing'

Dyanla "DeDe" Rainey, who won the Illinois girls high school state basketball championship alongside her twin sister Miyanda back in 2018, was gunned down on her driveway on Sunday afternoon and later died at the hospital. She was just 22 years old.

DeDe's sister-in-law, Crystal Rainey, described the horrific shooting.

“She was getting ready to get out of her car on the driveway on the side of the house, and a man hopped out of a vehicle and shot a few rounds into her car,” Crystal Rainey said. “She was hit three times in her back.”

According to Crystal, DeDe's mother Margot Rainey was sitting in her own car just beyond DeDe's driveway and witnessed her daughter's murder.

“Margo was pulling up behind her and saw it all go down,” Crystal said. “DeDe got out of the car and ran to her.”

Police say they received a call about shots fired in a neighborhood in Maywood, Illinois, just outside Chicago, about 2 p.m. on Sunday. When they arrived at the scene, they found DeDe on the ground, facedown and unresponsive. They immediately began administering emergency care before transporting her to Loyola Medical University Hospital, where she later died.

DeDe and twin sister Miyanda, aka "MeMe," were members of the Marshall Metropolitan High School girls basketball team, which won the Class 2A state title back in 2018. DeDe scored 20 points in the championship game, despite the fact that she had a sprained ankle and fluid in her lungs.

Her former coach, Dorothy Gaters, remembers DeDe fondly.

“She always did the right thing,” Gaters said. “Whatever you asked, she would do it the right way. Some kids always find ways to cheat. That wasn’t her.”

“She had a sprained ankle a few days before the game and was having trouble breathing during it,” Gaters added. “I had to take her out but she came to me and wanted back in, said her team needed her. The next day when we were back in Chicago she went to the hospital with fluid in her lungs.”

Since DeDe's passing, many friends and family members have shared their grief and their memories of DeDe on Facebook.

"Whewww WHAT AM I TO DO NOW? Lost for words ain’t even it Slime ," twin sister MeMe wrote. "I feel like a lost soul I feel like I’m here by myself!! What’s next for me cause I swear I don’t want do it without you!!!! My Ace when you seen DeDe you seen MeMe I never got the chance to be a Auntie to your kids and you never got the chance to be one to mine but know IM STANDING ON BUSINESS ABOUT YOU I love you forever my 5lifer "

DeDe and MeMe had already begun their own child care business. DeDe had also thought about going back to school. Her murder is still under investigation.

“DeDe was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Crystal Rainey said. “We don’t know if they mistook her for someone else.”