A TikTok star’s son who was shot dead at an Alabama gas station just one day before his 19th birthday was selling marijuana at the time, police said.
Randon Lee — whose mom, Ophelia Nichols, has 7 million followers on TikTok — was gunned down at a gas station in Prichard, Ala., last Friday.
Two suspects in the slaying have been identified by police, but no arrests have yet been made.
They added that Lee had met the suspects at the gas station to sell them drugs.
Footage obtained by investigators showed Lee and the suspects pulling up to the gas station pumps in separate vehicles, Detective Jason Hadaway said at a press conference Monday.
One of the suspects got into Lee’s vehicle and shot him before getting back into their own car and fleeing.
An injured Lee drove to another gas station, where he died.
“We do know at this time that Mr. Lee did have a relationship as far as selling to different individuals,” Hadaway said. “These two individuals had bought from him in the past.”
Police said Lee wasn’t previously on their radar for selling drugs.
In the wake of the latest revelation, Lee’s mom posted a video on her account saying the family had discovered a “lot of stuff we just didn’t know.”
“When your children live out on their own and pay their own bills and they have a good job … it just don’t cross your mind that they would be doing anything to get themselves into trouble,” said Nichols, who posts under the handle @shoelover99.
“We’ve been told that the detectives think that marijuana was being [dealt]. My son was meeting there, and either they tried to rob him or they did rob him, but he was shot.”
She had initially posted a TikTok begging her followers to come forward with information about her son’s killers.
Police said they’d received a number of calls related to the case — likely because of the mother’s popularity on social media.
“Ms. Nichols has a TikTok following, which is great, and all those followers could help by calling in,” Hadaway said. “This homicide is not more important than any homicide we’ve had in the city of Prichard or actually anywhere.”
