TikTok Star Mama Tot Reacts to Arrest Made in Son’s Murder: ‘Grateful, But Not Happy’

“As soon as I seen that mugshot ultimate night, I assumed to myself, ‘My goodness, he’s solely a baby.’”
Ophelia Nichols, the Alabama TikTok star whose son Randon Lee was killed in a capturing once more in June, is feeling for the family of one in every of many males charged in his murder following his arrest.

On Thursday, 20-year-old Reuben Gulley turned himself into authorities on a murder price, after a warrant was issued for his arrest earlier this month. At this stage, it’s unclear whether or not or not authorities suspect Gulley of capturing Lee or driving the getaway automotive, after the 18-year-old was killed whereas allegedly dealing medicine to the two suspects at a Prichard, AL gas station.

Consistent with Fox 10, Gulley was denied bond all through a listening to on Friday and is being held on the Mobile County Metro Jail. An arraignment is prepared for subsequent Tuesday.

“I get 100 messages saying you must be so happy correct now and I am not. I am not happy. When circumstances like this happen or totally different traumatic circumstances, I check out all of the issues, I don’t merely check out this and determine or an opinion, I check out all of the issues,” she continued. “And after I seen that mugshot ultimate night, I assumed to myself, my goodness, he’s solely a baby. He’s solely a baby.”

“Then I seen suggestions from his teachers that talked about, ‘I taught him in highschool and he was a gorgeous youthful man.’ I wager he was. I wager he was,” she went on. “That merely made me assume, inside 11 seconds, he determined to solely throw his life away. And there may be one issue that he and my youngster teenager had in widespread and that is that they every had a mother that may do utterly one thing for them. I’m optimistic they’ve that in widespread.”

“So take into accout this, there’s now two households that are hurtin’. Two of us,” she added. “And other people dad and mother shouldn’t bear one factor that their teenager did merely along with I shouldn’t bear for one factor my kids have completed.”

Nichols then talked about among the many totally different people who’ve “hurt me truly large” since her son’s murder first made headlines, saying so many people have made “such horrible suggestions about my youngster teenager.”

“I assumed, ‘Why? You don’t even know him. You don’t even know him.’ After which I assumed ultimate night, ‘Lord, I hope [the suspect’s mother] don’t bear that. I don’t want that on anybody. That was truly laborious for me. Neither of one among our children must have been there that night, neither one among them.”

Whereas she talked about she hopes there’s “justice” in her son’s lack of life, she reiterated that “there are two households hurt” on this state of affairs, “not merely me.” She moreover acknowledged that there are a variety of various households in her metropolis “that ain’t in no way obtained justice.”

In a followup publish shared later throughout the day, Nichols reacted to totally different TikTok creators tagging her of their very personal response motion pictures to the arrest. She outlined that she knew for a couple of week and a half that an arrest warrant had been issued, nevertheless didn’t know Gulley had turned himself in until a reporter often known as her asking for a comment. She talked about that after she obtained off the cellphone, she heard from a detective who confirmed the knowledge after which went to TikTok to create a video, solely to see others had already churned out their very personal regarding the info.

“My youngster child’s life isn’t a humorous gossip story that occurred in a humorous small metropolis a month prior to now that we’ll giggle about it proper now … that’s my child’s life. And my teenager was murdered,” she talked about, upset about how others had jumped to create content material materials spherical his lack of life.

She concluded her video by admitted that presumably she was “getting mad regarding the mistaken issue.”

On the time of his lack of life, Prichard Police Division Detective Jason Hadaway talked about that Randon was “selling narcotics” to 2 individuals who that that they had acknowledged as suspects throughout the case. Per Hadaway, the suspects have been seen in surveillance video getting inside Lee’s car at a gas station, sooner than one shot was fired and the suspects left with a handgun.

Cops say Lee tried to “attempt to escape the folks” by driving his car to a distinct gas station all through the street after being shot. Paramedics have been often known as, nevertheless he died on the scene.

Hadaway talked about Lee was selling marijuana and authorities found narcotics in his car.