Friday, April 17, 2020 | 8:40 a.m.
CHICAGO — A second Chicago teenager has been charged with murder in the death of a former Marine who was allegedly pushed from a subway platform into a moving train.
Fajour Hodges, 19, was arrested and charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the April 7 death of Mamadou Balde, police said. Hodges allegedly punched Balde, 29, and helped another young man who was previously charged in the attack push him into a moving Red Line train at a downtown L stop, killing him, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Hodges had a bail hearing scheduled for Friday. His arrest came less than a week after his alleged accomplice, Ryan Munn, was ordered held without bail in Balde’s killing. Prosecutors said Munn, 18, has admitted taking part in the attack, which was captured on surveillance video.
The victim's father, Al Balde, wiped away tears during Munn’s bail hearing on Sunday as the attack was recounted.
“Throwing someone alive into a moving train, you will never, never hate someone more than that,” he said.
Prosecutors said Balde was approaching passengers on April 7 at the Jackson Red Line station platform when he started talking to Hodges. Balde smiled and jokingly put his arms up as if to fight and Hodges allegedly punched Balde in the face, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, Munn jumped in and he and Hodges pushed Balde, who fell between two train cars and was dragged along the platform until he was killed when his head and upper body struck a metal partition inside a tunnel.
