HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Darlene Gandy-Wilson remembers the last time her son, Phillip, wrapped his arms around her.
"Phillip would always give me a hug and kiss on my forehead and say, 'I love you so much, Mama', and I said, 'I know you do and I love you too,'" she said.
Phillip Avery Wilson, 34, was one of two men shot and killed at a Virginia Department of Transportation equipment yard along Route 1, near the entrance ramps to Route 288 in Chesterfield County, on the morning of July 24. Rai'Shon Eugene Delarge, 30, also died in the shooting. Delarge died at the scene. Wilson died from his injuries that afternoon.
U.S. Marshals and Virginia State Police are still searching for 37-year-old Dennikia Boyce, wanted on murder charges in connection with both deaths. Boyce, a former correctional officer at Greensville Correctional Center, is believed to have ties to the Emporia area. Authorities describe Boyce as approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing about 160 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.
Chesterfield County
Woman accused of murdering 2 men at VDOT site remains on the run
Investigators say the two men were working as contractors for a company hired by VDOT when they were shot. Virginia State Police troopers were called to the scene just before 9:30 a.m. Police said the shooting was domestic in nature.
Gandy-Wilson said two weeks ago, her son and Delarge had moved from Emporia to Richmond for a new job. She said Wilson was helping Delarge leave an abusive relationship and had offered him a place to stay at her home.
"I sat him down, we talked and he cried in my arms for about 30 minutes. He just cried and he kept saying, 'I'm tired,' and he said, 'This isn't how my life should be,’" she said. "I just wrapped my arms around him and I said, 'I'm just going to pray.’"
Gandy-Wilson says she was on a church retreat in Florida, when she was contacted by Virginia State Police.
“I’m still trying to put together in my head what reason this young lady would do this and that she was upset that my son was helping a friend. That’s all he did,” Gandy-Wilson said. “[She’s] taken my son from his sister and from his brother and from his innocent one-year-old baby. We didn’t ask for this and we didn’t ask to go through this type of pain, but we are."
Now Gandy-Wilson says she and Delarge’s mother are facing the devastation of having to bury their own sons. She said the grief will not be short-lived.
"This is going to be something that's with me and her, not for days or weeks or months, but for the rest of our lives," she said.
Despite her grief, Gandy-Wilson said she is working to resist hatred toward the suspect and is encouraging her “to do the right thing."
"Do I want to hate her? I do, but I can't because that's not how I was raised. Just because people do wrong to you doesn't give you the right to turn around and hate them," she said. “I forgive her, I really do and wherever she is, I just want her to turn herself in."
Gandy-Wilson said her son loved playing sports and music and was a devoted son, brother and father. She hopes her grandson will one day understand the kind of man his father was and the joy that he brought to his family. Wilson leaves behind a 23-month-old son, Elisha.
"One day he'll know the good that his dad done, and he'll know that his father loved him,” Gandy-Wilson says. "I hope he grows up remembering all those hugs him and his dad shared."
She said her family will lean on faith to carry them through.
"Are we going to survive? Yes, we are going to get through this with a lot of prayer, and with a lot of trust in God," she said.
Services for Delarge were held last weekend in Woodbridge, Virginia. Funeral services for Wilson will be held August 7 and 8 at Meadowood Church of God in Henrico County.
Anyone with information on Boyce's whereabouts is asked to contact the U.S. Marshals Service or Virginia State Police.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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