A 23-year-old man is now behind bars on a capital murder charge in a 2022 fatal shooting during a child custody exchange at a Bessemer park.

Jerrius Deontez Hickley, of Birmingham, was booked into the Jefferson County Jail earlier this week.

Hickley is charged in the Sept. 11, 2022, shooting death of 29-year-old Christopher Lamar Tanks.

He was initially arrested last year but the case was dismissed because of a clerical error. Though the warrant was quickly re-issued, Hickley was not re-arrested.

The case was called for a preliminary hearing this week in the Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff. The hearing was continued to give Hickley’s attorney adequate time to prepare, records show, but the court noted that Hickley was not in custody even though he is charged with capital murder.

District Judge Thomas Thrash Sr. ordered Hickley jailed immediately. Hickley is now held without bond.

The deadly shooting happened last fall at McNeil Park in Bessemer’s Pipe Shop community. It was about 1 p.m. that Sunday when police said a mother and her boyfriend – Tanks – were meeting the child’s father and the father’s brother – Hickley – to swap custody. An argument broke.

Shots were fired by Tanks, the child’s father and Hickley, the child’s uncle, police said.

Both Tanks and the child’s father were wounded. They were taken to UAB Hospital in Birmingham, where Tanks was pronounced dead.

The child’s father was critically injured but survived.

Court records indicate the charge is capital because Tanks’ own child was also present at the time he was killed.

A preliminary hearing in the case is set for June 26.