After authorities on Friday announced the arrest of a second suspect in the murder of Kyle Bickham, the man fatally pushed from a moving Chicago Transit Authority Red Line train earlier this month, his father could still see the look he brought to others’ faces.
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“He could bring any gloomy situation to greatness,” Christopher Bickham Sr. said. “He was still a baby in my eyes.”
Bickham had been on his way home from work at Amazon when he was forcefully pushed from a train and killed, said Bickham Sr. His son was beloved by his three siblings and close to his mother. He loved to see people laugh, spend time with his girlfriend, and work hard at his job, just like he had since he was 15 years old, he said.
Officers arrested Katlar Parchman, 19, and accused her of being one of several people who pushed Bickham, police said Friday.
Parchman faces five felony charges, including first-degree murder, and is scheduled to appear for a detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building Saturday. Police previously charged a 15-year-old girl in the Sept. 7 homicide. The girl has since faced hearings in juvenile court.
Asked about the arrests, Bickham Sr. said he hopes his son’s attackers “get right with God.”
“They took something precious from me and my family and from the world, too,” he said. ” I can’t hear his voice. I can’t hear him. I can’t hear my son be mad at me… I can’t hear us make up… I can’t hear him say, ‘Dad, you know I love you, you’re the best dad ever.'”
Bickham Sr. recalled his son playing with a niece just weeks ago. The 29-year-old and the young girl seemed overwhelmed with joy. It almost made Bickham Sr. jealous, he added.
“She was so elated. He had the greatest smile on her face,” Bickham Sr. said.
He told the two they were loud. They got even louder, he said. Bickham’s mother, Latanya Bickham, previously called on all the attackers behind his death to go to police and accept accountability for their actions.
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“I don’t know who else is out there, but I’d like you to turn yourself in,” she told reporters. “Also, I’d like to understand what’s going on with the CTA, how it was so easy to have the door open in the middle of the ride and my son be thrown off the train.”
Police said the attackers pushed Bickham from the train near West 69th Street in the Grand Crossing neighborhood.
The family plans to hold a funeral soon, Bickham Sr. said.