Faith Academy Student Killed While Running
(MOBILE, Ala.) Nov. 13 - Mac Chatom, 15, couldn't wait to turn 16 and start driving the truck he had been fixing up.
In some ways he was an average 16 year old, but his family says in other ways he was special.
"He was so kind hearted and genuine. He loved everybody, his sister Brandi Dees said.
Chatom was 5 1/2 miles into a 7-mile run with a friend when he was hit by a Ford truck and thrown.
His friend says Chatom was awake and moving after he was hit, and in his last moments, he talked to a driver who had stopped to help.
"He told her that he loved her, and I don't know if he thought it was our mom," Dees says. "I don't know what he thought, but we're glad that she was there with him."
Friday, family and friends gathered to talk about the impact Chatom had on so many lives.
"I just wanted to say that he was a very good person," Peyton Henderson, Mac's cousin, says. "He was a good christian person, and I looked up to him."
Family members say they have mixed feelings about the truck's driver.
"I don't know if he is feeling a lot of guilt right now," Chatom's sister Blaine Allen says. "It's also hard to not miss somebody when it could have been prevented."
The truck's driver was not hurt, and state troopers say he did not appear to be impaired by drugs or alcohol. He has not been charged, but the case will be presented to a grand jury.
Chatom was training for a marathon he was planning to run with his friend; the friend says he will still run the marathon they were training to run.
Chatom was a sophomore at Faith Academy. His funeral is scheduled for Monday at Life Church of Mobile.
