The social media creator who allegedly hit and killed a pedestrian as she hosted a livestream while simultaneously driving through a Chicago suburb has been arrested, according to authorities.
Known best to her online followers as Tea Tyme, Tynesha McCarty-Wroten was arrested Tuesday for her role in the 3 November death of 59-year-old Darren Lucas, said Lt Paul Kehrli of the Zion, Illinois, police department.
Local jail records show McCarty-Wroten, 43, faces felony charges of reckless homicide and aggravated use of a communications device resulting in death.
Lucas’s son-in-law, Chris King, said Tuesday that the state attorney’s office had informed his family of McCarty-Wroten’s arrest.
“The family and myself are glad to see the wheels of justice moving,” King said.
Lucas was walking at an intersection in Zion, near his home town of Beach Park, when a motorist reportedly struck him, leaving him unconscious. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital emergency room from blunt force injuries.
McCarty-Wroten remained at the scene of the crash to speak to investigators.
According to police, she allegedly reported that she believed she had a green light when she noticed Lucas’s crossing in front of her too late and therefore hit him. She wasn’t immediately charged.
McCarty-Wroten soon drew the police’s scrutiny, though, after surveillance video in the area revealed she had a red light and Lucas had the green when she struck him as he walked across the street. Within days, police also learned of a video that suggested Lucas had been hit by a driver livestreaming on a TikTok account associated with Wroten.
She eventually surrendered her phone through an attorney after initially declining to turn it over, police said. And officers added that a forensic analysis confirmed the video of McCarty-Wroten livestreaming was taken on the date and at the time of the crash that killed Lucas.
The TikTok video that caught police’s attention was a screen recording of a livestream hosted by user “Tea_Tyme_3”. In the video, the host was seen speaking at her telephone before a loud thud prompted her to say: “Fuck, fuck, fuck … I just hit somebody.”
Tea_Tyme_3 ended the livestream just as a child in the car asked what had happened. Someone else in the car, meanwhile, questioned whether the driver was OK.
That account was subsequently made private, and a biography section that said the user was from Zion was deleted.
McCarty-Wroten – who is linked to the Tea Tyme moniker in online profiles and Illinois state business records – later sparked a social media outcry when she appeared on a separate livestream days after Lucas’s death and solicited donations on the Cash App platform. She said any donations that she received would support her taking “mental leave” amid “a lot of shit going on”.
“You know I don’t like asking y’all for shit, but if y’all … find it in y’all’s heart and y’all wanna support, my CashApp is right there,” she remarked, according to a recording of the plea made to a restricted TikTok audience.
Among numerous negative replies to McCarty-Wroten’s solicitation was a TikTok comment reading: “Wow despicable!!! She has no remorse!!!” Another read: “CASH APP???? AFTER MOWING OVER SOMEBODY…????”
Besides being a TikTok personality, online profiles associated with Tea Tyme tout her as a musician and book publisher.
Lucas’s family has launched a GoFundMe campaign meant to raise financial support for his widow, whom King described as the late man’s “everything”.
Lucas was walking home from work at a nearby grocery store when McCarty-Wroten hit him, said information released by police after her arrest.
Studies through the years have attributed cell phone use while driving to an increase in the potential for crashes like the one that killed Lucas.
TikTok prohibits drivers from livestreaming on the platform as a matter of safety. But setting a customized background with the platform’s green screen function can defeat the safety measure.
