Kyle Bickham murder: Chicago police question another person of interest after man pushed from moving CTA train

CHICAGO - Another person of interest is being questioned in connection with the death of a man who was allegedly pushed from a moving CTA Red Line train earlier this month.

Kyle Bickham murder

According to prosecutors, 29-year-old Kyle Bickham was riding home from work on a Red Line train Sept. 7 when he became involved in an altercation with four other passengers — 19-year-old Katlar Parchman, a 15-year-old girl and two other men.

Prosecutors allege the group forced open the doors of the train's last car while it was moving and pushed Bickham onto the tracks, causing his death.

Parchman faces the following charges:

• One count of first-degree murder
• Two counts of murder during the commission of another forcible felony
• One count of aggravated battery of a transit employee
• One count of mob action involving force by two or more people

A 15-year-old girl has also been charged with murder in the case. And now, an additional person of interest is being questioned about the attack, police said Tuesday.

What led up to the deadly push

What we know:

Bickham was riding home from work on the Red Line when he boarded the train at the 95th Street stop — the same stop where Parchman, the 15-year-old girl and two other men also got on.

Surveillance cameras inside the train car captured what followed, and multiple witnesses described what they saw unfold.

According to prosecutors, Bickham sat across from Parchman and started talking to her, while the 15-year-old was walking back and forth through the car. At one point, Bickham got up and approached another passenger near a bag, and that passenger told him to back off.

Bickham briefly got off the train at one stop, then boarded again. A couple of minutes later, he and the 15-year-old got into an argument, moving around the car as they yelled at each other. During the argument, prosecutors state that Bickham spit on the teen, which also hit Parchman. That's when things turned physical. One of the men grabbed Bickham by the arm while the teen girl punched him in the face, prosecutors said.

How the attack unfolded

The group surrounds Bickham:

Prosecutors allege the four people involved, Parchman, the teen and the two men, surrounded Bickham and then started punching and striking him as they moved toward the back of the train car. One of the men began choking Bickham while the others, including Parchman, kept punching him and pulling at his head.

According to prosecutors, there was a brief pause in the fight near the sliding train doors, during which Bickham reached down to pick up his headphones from the floor. The two men then forced him into the corner near the train car's sliding doors, as Parchman and the teenager closed in around him.

Pushed from a moving train:

One of the men fighting Bickham pulled the emergency lever on the sliding door while the train was still moving, forcing it open. The teen then stepped up alongside him, and they pushed Bickham out of the moving train as he struggled against them. The teenage girl grabbed him by the head and shoulder and pulled Bickham out, according to prosecutors.

Parchman and the other man were standing directly next to them as it happened. When Bickham was pushed out, he was struck by a southbound train and killed. Before leaving the train at the State Street stop, the teen was described by witnesses as saying "he shouldn't have bothered us."

How investigators tracked Parchman down

Timeline:

Parchman's Ventra card linked to her name and phone number was used to enter the 95th Street station. Investigators also found an Instagram story posted from her account on the day of the attack, showing a selfie of her wearing the same clothes she had on in the surveillance footage. A witness also positively identified her in a photo array.

Parchman was arrested on Sept. 16 in the 200 block of North Keeler Avenue. After being read her rights, she spoke with detectives and identified herself, the teen and the two men in still photos pulled from the CTA surveillance video. 

She told detectives she slapped Bickham three or four times for spitting on her and then stopped. When detectives searched her phone with her consent, they found she had searched for "good places to lay low" and "who are the police looking for" after the attack.

What's next:

The two other men involved in the attack have not been charged, police said.

The investigation remains ongoing.

The video at the top of this story is dated.