Warning: This article contains descriptions of violence resulting in death. Please proceed with caution.
No matter how you look at it, this is an all-around tragic situation. That said, there’s only one person who was nothing but an innocent victim: Loletha Hall, the 61-year-old Uber driver who was only doing her job.
On the morning of March 25, 2024, 81-year-old William Brock from South Charleston, Ohio, shot and killed Hall after she arrived at his home to pick up a package she was unknowingly instructed to by a scammer.
But how did we get here? With the elderly man charged with Hall’s murder?
The scam that led to Hall’s death
The scammer, who has not yet been identified, was pretending to be an officer of the court repeatedly calling Brock to blackmail him into sending ransom money to release his nephew from prison. The money amounted to 12 thousand dollars, and it was all in the envelope Loletha Hall was told to pick up from the pensioner’s home.
Allegedly, the scammer made threats of violence and death to get Brock to pay up. In his call to 911, he explained that he had been threatened all morning. The homeowner was told someone would drop by his house to pick up the package, but he had no idea this person, Loletha, had nothing to do with the scam.
The tragic incident
When Loletha arrived at the designated house, Brock confronted her with a gun. Guessing correctly this was above her paygrade, Loletha backed away with the intention of leaving. At no point did she threaten Brock. Brock demanded to know whom she worked for and wanted to have her phone, assumingly to see who the scammer was for himself.
“Stop. Stop. Or I’ll call 911.” Loletha could be heard saying in the recording as she retreated from Brock and out of the camera’s view. Loletha tried to go on her way, but Brock told her she could not leave, demanding her phone, and when she didn’t comply, he proceeded to shoot her in the leg. This was when the injured woman started desperately yelling for help, walking backward as Brock threatened to shoot her in the other leg.
“Sir! I’m here to pick up a package!” Hall tells him.
Convinced of his truth, Brock told her that he knew what she was after. After threatening to shoot her in the head, the old man asked her who she worked for, to which Loletha replied “Uber!” and indicated the visible proof that was in her car. But Brock was unrelenting and Hall’s pleas fell on deaf ears.
After shooting Hall again, Brock calls 911. He explained that there had been a shooting and that the victim was “some black woman” who was now lying on his driveway. He was quite candid in admitting he shot Loletha in the leg and shoulder but lied saying the driver had threatened to kill him – likely still assuming Hall was in on the scam. The bleeding victim still could be heard calling out for aid in the background. It seemed however that, as cold and unsympathetic as Brock was to the suffering he inflicted, he did not intend to kill Loletha.
Brock has been charged with 2 counts of Felony Murder, Felonious Assault, and Felony Kidnapping. Uber has said they are committed to helping with the investigation. Police actually got to speak with the scammer on the phone. He kept up his officer facade but once he realized he was speaking to a real officer, he promptly hung up. Later, he called back still under the false pretense, asking questions to know more, and arranging to meet with detectives. He did not show up. In the end, the scammer got more information out of those two calls than the detectives did.
At the time of this writing, the unnamed criminal is still at large but hopefully, law enforcement will be able to track down this person, who’s the main one to blame for having triggered this unfortunate sequence of events.
