“Grateful, but not happy”: Mama Tot responds to arrest made in son Randon Lee’s murder 

TikTok star Ophelia Nichols aka Mama Tot, whose son Randon Lee was shot dead on June 24, 2022, has broken her silence after suspect Reuben Gulley surrendered himself in connection with the murder case. Gully, 20, turned himself in to the Mobile County Metro Jail on Thursday evening after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Nichols, who is known as Mama Tot on TikTok, released a video on the platform which was captioned "grateful but not happy."

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She said that she was thankful for all the support but asked her fans to stop tagging her in posts related to the arrest.

"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 seen that mugshot last night, I thought to myself, my goodness, he's just a baby. He's just a baby."

Following the arrest, Ophelia expressed her sympathy for Reuben's family because the situation was beyond their control.

"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."

In a follow-up post the same day, she explained that she didn't know Gulley had turned himself in until a reporter called her asking for a comment. She asked fans to stop making their own news posts about the arrest, as her son's murder isn't "a funny gossip story."

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Mama Tot took to social media to ask for help to find her son's murderer

TikToker Ophelia Nichols aka Mama Tot on TikTok took to the social media platform to share the news of her son's demise (image via Facebook/Ophelia Nichols)

Randon Lee, Mama Tot's 18-year-old son, was shot a day before his 19th birthday on June 24 at a gas station in Alabama. At a press conference, Detective Jason Hadaway of the Prichard Police Department said that Lee was selling marijuana to two individuals at the time of the shooting.

Ophelia Nichols, known on TikTok as @shoelover99 and Mama Tot, posted a video on the platform to confirm that her 18-year-old son, Randon Lee, had been shot and pleaded with her 7 million strong followers to come forward if they had any leads.

"Somebody's gotta know something, this individual took my son's life. And I know they're out there, in my town. They're out there. They're out there living and breathing but my son is dead."

She further said:

"Somebody knows who did this to my child, and I'm asking for somebody's help, anybody's."

On June 28, Mama Tot issued a statement on Facebook, requesting that her fans not "think badly" of Lee due to the circumstances of his death.

"Please don't think badly of my son for the circumstances of how he was taken. We are not ashamed of him, and never will be. When I was 18, I made poor choices myself. No one's life should be taken over marijuana or anything else."

During the press conference, Detective Hadaway said the police were aware of Nichols' TikTok following and encouraged her followers to come forward and share any information they had in relation to the murder.

A GoFundMe fundraiser was also created for Randon Lee and more than 10,000 of Nichols' supporters contributed, totaling more than $280,000 for Lee's funeral expenses.