Inset: Andrea Tanner (Smith County Jail). Background: The Taco Bell near where Tanner allegedly hit a cyclist in Tyler, Tex. (Google Maps).
A Texas woman is behind bars after admitting she should have returned to the scene of a fatal hit-and-run late last year — but did not do so because she "wanted to go home," police in the Lone Star State say.
Andrea Tanner, 39, stands accused of second-degree collision involving injury or death, according to the Tyler Police Department. The victim has been identified as 19-year-old Lofton Williams.
The underlying incident occurred on Dec. 7, 2025, somewhere along the 2600 block of East 5th Street in Tyler, a large city located roughly 100 miles southeast of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
On the night in question, a vehicle struck Williams and drove away, police allege in an arrest affidavit obtained by Nacogdoches-based CBS affiliate KYTX and the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
Police say they used surveillance videos from multiple local businesses to piece together what happened that night.
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.
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