A TikToker known as Mr Prada has been arrested in connection to the murder of a Louisiana therapist.
Terryon Ishmael Thomas, 20, was taken into custody on Tuesday night in Dallas, Texas, after a manhunt, WVUE reported.
The influencer was named a person of interest in the murder of William Nicholas Abraham, 69, whose body was found in a tarp that had been dumped on a road on Sunday outside of Baton Rouge.
He will have to face a judge in Dallas who will determine whether he is extradited to Louisiana to face charges of aggravated criminal damage to property, resisting an officer and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
Thomas was seen driving the therapist’s vehicle as he fled from authorities during a traffic stop. He has not been charged in the therapist’s death, which authorities say was caused by blunt force trauma.
Terryon Ishmael Thomas, 20, was taken into custody on Tuesday night in Dallas, Texas
William Nicholas Abraham’s body was found wrapped in a tarp on the side of Highway 51
The TikTokeer reportedly refused to obey as an officer attempted to conduct a traffic stop – and instead backed into the police vehicle and fled on foot while officers recovered the victim’s vehicle.
Thomas was later captured on a nearby store’s surveillance cameras, which police released Monday night as he remained on the loose.
‘It was a very physical and very violent attack,’ Tangipahoa Sheriff Gerald Sticker said of the therapist’s death, according to WAFB.
‘He was bludgeoned about in the head, shoulders and neck. There was a lot of bruising.’
A motive for the murder remains unclear, but East Baton Rouge Parish court records obtained by WWL show Abraham was previously arrested in 2015 for allegedly inappropriately touching an 11-year-old boy during a therapy session.
Abraham was never charged in the incident, and Sheriff Sticker said that while he is aware of the arrest, he is focusing on locating where the therapist – who had a regular show on Baton Rouge television – was killed.
‘Right now we have no inclination as to where this originated,’ the sheriff said.
He noted that there were no weapons found on the side of the highway where his body was dumped, and a search of the victim’s home in East Baton Rouge Parish also found no indications that a crime had been committed there.
Baton Rouge police say Thomas was driving a Lincoln MKZ on Monday belonging to a beloved therapist that was found dead just one day before
The influencer was named a person of interest in the murder of William Nicholas Abraham
The sheriff’s office is now seeking ‘any information that the public can give us to help us put the picture together of Saturday… evening, before he was ultimately murdered – which we believe occurred sometime Saturday night,’ Sticker said.
Abraham’s friends and family are also demanding answers.
‘I want to know who did it and I want to know why,’ his brother, Tommy Abraham, told WBRZ.
‘I watch the news every night and I just sit back there and cringe when I hear someone killed somebody,’ he said. ‘It’s just not the way it’s supposed to be.’
‘No one should take a life but God. No one,’ Tommy added to WWL. ‘He’s the only one that can take a life, and for someone to take someone else’s life, you’re a coward.’
He and his brother, Joseph, said Abraham had worked as a Catholic priest for 14 years, serving in Mississippi and Milwaukee, before ultimately becoming a therapist.
Abraham also doubled as a life coach, ‘motivational speaker, recording artist, author, teacher and trailblazer,’ according to his website, which notes that he had experience treating substance abuse, anxiety and depression and worked with the LGBTQ community.
‘He made a mark on people’s lives and helped them be better people,’ Joseph said.
‘He was kind, loving, a gentle man and frankly not the kind of man that something like this would’ve happened to,’ added Abraham’s attorney, Jarret Ambeau.
‘I’m absolutely devastated and completely surprised that something like that could’ve happened to a man who I believe to be so tender and so gentle and have such a service heart.’
