Photo: TikTok / Oakland County Jail
Even the FBI are on TikTok now!
By Nia Tipton — Written on Mar 03, 2022
A rising TikTok star from Detroit was arrested by the FBI for four armed robberies after authorities were able to recognize evidence linking him to the string of robberies in his videos.
Chozen Terrell-Hannah was arrested following an FBi raid on his home in Redford Township, and is facing charges of affecting interstate commerce and being in possession of a firearm during a violent crime, which are punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Chozen Terrell-Hannah posted videos that contained the shoes worn during a robbery.
In all four robberies, Terrell-Hannah was seen wearing a hooded sweatshirt, a face mask, and a pair of white shoes.
However, during the fourth robbert, witnesses were able to identify strands of pink hair underneath the mask he wore.
While scouring his TikTok account, investigators noticied Terrell-Hannah dancing in a pair of white and red Nike tennis shoes, which were said to be a similar appearance to the shoes worn by the suspect in the robberies.
FBI agents were also able to discover that his hair had been dyed the same color pink as the one witnesses in the fourth robbery had identified, effectively linking Terrell-Hannah to all four crimes.
FBI agents had first learned of Terrell-Hannah's robbery spree after receiving an anonymous tip, which led them to discovering his TikTok account, Chozenwrld.
Terrell-Hannah, who has more than 149,000 followers on TikTok, admitted to carrying out four robberies, targeting a 7-Eleven store on two accounts, a gas station, and a tobacco shop in Wayne and Oakland counties between December 2021 and February 2022.
Terrell-Hannah's alleged crimes began in December 2021.
The investigation into identifying the suspect of the robberies started when a man wearing black pants, a black hooded sweatshirt, a black ski mask, white shoes, and carrying a black backpack with pink flowers on it, entered a 7-Eleven in Commerce Township, pulled a gun on a store clerk and got away with an unspecified amount of cash.
A month had passed before Terrell-Hannah allegedly staged another robbery, where the suspect had been dressed in black, wearing white sneakers and carrying a floral backpack. He robbed a Marathon gas station in Dearborn at gunpoint, pressing a gun into the clerk's back.
On January 26, the armed robber wearing the same white shoes returned to the 7-Eleven in Commerce Township, robbing it a second time.
It was just five days later when Terrell-Hannah staged his fourth and final robbery, targeting the Old West Tobacco store, where he raided the cash register, getting away with cash and several boxes of cigars.
However, it was during that fourth robbery when witnesses were able to identify the color of his hair.
In the days following the anonymous tip, and police discovering his TikTok account, they were able to obtain a search warrant for location information on Terrell-Hannah's phone number, which placed his phone at the scene of all four robbery locations.
After police made the arrest, it was then that Terrell-Hannah confessed to all four crimes, admitting to using the floral backpack in the multiple robberies. He is now awaiting a hearing in a federal court in Detroit.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Follow her on Instagram.