TikTok Star Mama Tot 'Grateful, But Not Happy' With Arrest Made In Son's Murder

TikTok star Ophelia Nichols, whose son Randon Lee was killed in a shooting in June, reacts to the arrest made in her kid's murder.

Reuben Gulley, 20, turned himself in to authorities on a murder charge Thursday after a warrant was issued for his arrest earlier this month. However, it remains unclear if authorities suspect Gulley of driving the getaway car or shooting Lee, who was killed while reportedly dealing drugs to the two suspects at a Prichard, AL gas station.

Fox10 reported that Gulley was denied bond during a hearing on Friday. The suspect is currently being held at the Mobile Country Metro Jail, and an arraignment is set for Tuesday, Aug. 23.

On Friday, Nichols, popularly known as Mama Tot on TikTok, posted videos reacting to both Gulley's arrest and other TikTok stars who hurriedly posted their own videos about the update before she even responded to it publicly.

"I would have loved to get on here last night and say, 'Guess what?' but unfortunately, the news and other people didn't allow that," Nichols told her 8.5 million followers.

"I'm getting 100 messages saying you must be so happy right now, and I am not. I am not happy. When situations like this happen or other traumatic situations, I look at everything, I don't just look at this and make a decision or an opinion, I look at everything. And when I [saw] that mugshot last night, I thought to myself, my goodness, he's just a baby. He's just a baby," the TikTok star continued.

"Then I [saw] comments from his teachers that said, 'I taught him in high school, and he was a lovely young man.' I bet he was. I bet he was. That just made me think, [that] within 11 seconds, he made a decision to just throw his life away. And there's one thing that he and my baby child had in common, and that is that they both had a mother that would do absolutely anything for them. I'm sure they have that in common," Nichols added.

"So remember this, there's now two families that are hurtin'. Two of us. And those parents shouldn't suffer something that their child did just as well as I shouldn't suffer for something my children have done," Mama Tot shared.

Nichols, in a follow-up post shared later in the day, also reacted to other TikTok stars who tagged her in their own reaction videos to the arrest. The content creator said she knew for about and a half that an arrest warrant had been issued.

However, Nichols shared that she did not know Gulley had turned himself in until a journalist called her asking for a comment. Lee's mom also heard from a detective who confirmed the news after she got off the phone and went to TikTok to create a video.

To her surprise, other TikTok stars had already posted their reaction video to Gulley's arrest. "My baby child's life isn't a funny gossip story that happened in a funny small town a month ago that we can laugh about it today ... this is my child's life. And my child was murdered," Nichols said.

Meanwhile, Prichard Police Department Detective Jason Hadaway, at the time of Lee's death, said that the teenager was "selling narcotics" to two individuals whom they had identified as suspects in the case. He added that the suspects were sighted in surveillance video getting inside Lee's car at a gas station before one shot was fired and the suspects left with a handgun.