Inset: Andrea Tanner (Smith County Jail). Background: The Taco Bell near where Tanner allegedly hit a cyclist in Tyler, Tex. (Google Maps).
In a troubling case from Texas, a woman has been arrested after confessing to a hit-and-run incident that resulted in the death of a young man, with her reason for not returning to the scene being that she “wanted to go home.” This admission has led to Andrea Tanner, aged 39, facing charges of second-degree collision involving injury or death, according to the Tyler Police Department.
The hit-and-run took place on December 7, 2025, on East 5th Street in Tyler, a city positioned about 100 miles southeast of the sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The victim of this tragic event was 19-year-old Lofton Williams.
On that fateful night, police reports indicate that Williams was struck by a vehicle that subsequently fled the scene. This information comes from an arrest affidavit reviewed by local media outlets such as CBS affiliate KYTX and the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
In their investigation, police utilized surveillance footage from several local businesses to reconstruct the sequence of events. These videos captured a truck making a stop at a Brookshire’s grocery store shortly after the incident, and then moving on to a Taco Bell parking lot nearby.
The footage further reveals a woman exiting the truck and repeatedly adjusting the vehicle’s damaged grill, seemingly attempting to force it back into place. This manipulation of the truck’s front end was a critical piece of evidence, as highlighted in the police affidavit.
After the crash, surveillance footage shows a truck stopping at a Brookshire”s grocery store before continuing on to a nearby Taco Bell parking lot, police claim. Then, the footage shows a woman getting out of the truck and “manipulating” the damaged grill over and over, according to the affidavit. The woman, at one point, appears to try and shove the grill back into place.
After those haphazard repair efforts, the woman is seen picking up a man from the Taco Bell after he got off work and driving away, police say. Investigators identified the man from the Taco Bell and he led them directly to Tanner, according to the affidavit.
During an interview with police, Tanner allegedly said she thought she hit something that possibly caused her to have a flat tire. Investigators were suspicious of this claim, however, by noting that the defendant drove her truck for a long time after the fact — an amount of time they described as much longer than someone with a flat tire would typically drive, according to the affidavit.
The defendant also claimed to have checked on the damage only once, law enforcement alleges. That claim did not help her case because surveillance footage showed her getting out to check her truck multiple times before she even got to the Taco Bell, police said.
Tanner admitted to hearing a “pop” when she struck something in the road, assuming she hit a nail. That description did not convince the police. Investigators said audio and video from the surveillance footage depicted a loud crashing sound and that it would have been “impossible to be in (Tanner’s) truck and not realize that you had been involved in a serious collision,” according to the affidavit.
Police officers, in turn, said there had been a cyclist directly in front of her, to which Tanner allegedly replied: “That is wild.”
The defendant added that she had been looking straight ahead the entire time she was driving, according to law enforcement.
Tanner added that the incident felt like a jerk that resulted in her feeling a slight shake, but it did not seem like an impact or that she had hit anything “hard,” according to the affidavit.
The defendant said she thought about going back to see what she had hit, acknowledging she had no reason not to do so, but that “in her mind, she was hoping it was nothing serious,” the affidavit says.
At one point, Tanner admitted she considered the idea that she might have hit a person, police said. This thought allegedly came to her while she was parked at the Taco Bell.
Tanner also told investigators she tried to remain calm after the incident because she knows she can “panic” and “freak out.”
“I should have gone back,” the defendant finally admitted. But she told police she “was ready to get home,” according to the affidavit.
Investigators recovered what appeared to be a piece of the victim’s bicycle seat in the truck’s grill, police say.
Following the incident, Williams was taken to an area hospital where he eventually died from his injuries.
Tanner was arrested on Monday and detained in the Smith County Jail on $250,000 bond. The case will be forwarded to the Smith County District Attorney’s Office, police said.
