A TikTok user was arrested and charged on Tuesday after police say they confirmed she was livestreaming to the platform, ran a red light and fatally struck a man crossing the street in Zion.
Tynesha McCarty-Wroten, 43, of Zion, is charged with reckless homicide, a Class 3 felony, and aggravated use of a communication device causing death, a Class 4 felony.
Zion Police Department Lt. Paul Kehrli told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that the charges were filed on Tuesday and an arrest warrant was obtained.
McCarty-Wroten, who was registered under the TikTok account Tea_Tyme_3, was driving in the area of 33rd Street and Sheridan Road in Zion around 5:46 p.m. on November 3.
Kehrli said McCarty-Wroten was driving a 2015 Ford utility vehicle on Sheridan Road.
She told investigators she had a green light but video evidence showed she actually had a red light.
Darren Lucas, 59, of Beach Park, was attempting to cross Sheridan Road just south of 33rd Street when he was hit by the Ford.
McCarty-Wroten remained at the scene, called 911 and provided a statement to investigators, Kehrli said. She also provided a blood and urine sample.
Officers who were first on scene began performing CPR on Lucas, who was unconscious and not breathing, according to fire department radio traffic.
Paramedics took over lifesaving measures and rushed Lucas to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan. He was pronounced dead in the emergency room.
An autopsy performed on Lucas showed he died as a result of blunt force injuries from the collision.
The Lake County Major Crash Assistance Team (MCAT) responded to conduct the crash reconstruction and investigation.
A screen recording of a TikTok live video was published on TikTok on November 7 and showed the Tea_Tyme_3 account, now confirmed to belong to McCarty-Wroten, who is a content creator with TikTok, YouTube and Instagram accounts with thousands of followers, driving her car when she hit Lucas.
McCarty-Wroten was looking at her phone when she then glanced back at the road and suddenly screamed as a loud thud could be heard.
“F–k, f–k, f–k,” she said as a child passenger in the car could be heard asking, “What was that?” Another person could be heard asking if the woman was okay.
“I just hit somebody,” she said before disconnecting from the live stream.
McCarty-Wroten had an eight-year-old child in her backseat at the time of the crash.
The video published on November 7 on TikTok was a screen recording of the TikTok live stream, which was originally streamed to the platform on November 3 when the crash occurred.
After the discovery of the video, Zion Police Department began looking into the video and working to verify its validity.
Kehrli said the woman’s phone was seized and search warrants and subpoenas were obtained.
He also said “lots of paperwork” had been filed and sent out regarding the case and investigators would “do everything to ensure a concrete and solid case.”
Kehrli said earlier this week that the police investigation had been completed and the department had “done its part.”
The investigation showed her phone made the live-streamed TikTok video on the same date and time of the crash, Kehrli said.
Kehrli said the investigation was expedited by the crime lab and MCAT. TikTok reached out to the police department and assigned a specific investigator to aid in the case with gathering data from TikTok.
The police department then reached out to the state’s attorney’s office for them to review the case for charges.
The state’s attorney’s office reviewed the case on Tuesday and approved the felony charges.
Kehrli said police had been in touch with McCarty-Wroten’s attorney since earlier on in the investigation. They requested him have her self-surrender on Tuesday after being charged but the attorney indicated she was unable to surrender for a week.
Officers went to her residence in Zion on Tuesday afternoon and located her. She was leaving her home with packed bags, Kehrli said.
She was arrested and has been transported to the Lake County Jail. She is expected to appear in First Appearance Court on Wednesday and prosecutors said they intend to file a petition to detain her pending trial.
Kehrli said the case is a reminder to the public that distracted driving is extremely dangerous and lives depend on drivers paying attention to the road.
“Our grieving will last forever, but seeing justice starting to happen helps,” Chris King, Lucas’ son-in-law, told Lake and McHenry County Scanner following the arrest.
“The hardest part is the mother in law lost the most, and only with lots of time, counseling, and love will she be able to find her way to move forward, without her best friend, her love, and honestly her life. She did so much for him, and to see him erased, is unfathomable,” he added.
King said his family is blessed to have the support of the community.
“He played a great role in [us] finding humor when humor is needed,” King said.
“I personally just lost a great friend, while so many lost much more, hope… hope that if this guy can make people happy, no matter their background or affiliation, at his own expense at times. But we loved him for who he was, and the light that he shone on our lives,” King said.
King described Lucas as the “nicest guy I’ve known” and said his father-in-law worked at the former Piggly Wiggly, which is now Torres Fresh Market, across the street from where he was struck by the vehicle.
A GoFundMe account to benefit Lucas’ wife was created and raised over $2,000.
A user on Reddit posted a thread on November 7 saying that they were watching the live stream of user “Tea_Tyme_3” at the time of the crash, calling it “haunting.”
“So, there’s a creator I’ve followed for years on TikTok. She goes live all the time chatting with her viewers, driving around, acting like she’s got her own reality show happening 24/7. I usually don’t think much of it. Tons of people go live while doing mundane stuff,” the Reddit user said.
“She was driving while talking to everyone in the chat responding to comments, looking at the screen way too much. You could clearly tell she wasn’t paying attention to the road. I remember thinking, ‘Girl please just focus, this is not safe,'” the user said.
“Then suddenly, in the middle of the conversation, there was this loud thud like the car hit something solid. Her phone jerked, the camera shook, and then she just froze. The look on her face was pure shock. She put the phone down, opened the door, and got out. People in the chat were confused, asking what happened. And then the live just ended,” the Reddit user said.
“Later, I kept checking her page because I just… knew something horrible happened. Sure enough, news stories started popping up: she had hit a pedestrian a man and he died from his injuries. A man died because she wanted attention from a livestream,” the Reddit user added.