Police say the elderly man received a call from a scammer saying that a relative of his had been arrested and the scammer ordered the man to pay $12,000. “He was telling me he was going to kill me and the family and everybody else around,” the man said.
An 81-year-old man fatally shot an Uber driver he wrongly believed was going to kill him. Authorities say both he and the driver were victims of a scam.
Video shows William Brock pointing a gun at the Uber driver who was sent to his home to pick up a package. He shot 61-year-old Loletha Hall in the leg.
Hall called for help and told Brock why she was at his home.
The deadly confrontation, parts of which were caught on Hall’s dashcam, ended with Brock shooting Hall two more times.
The 81-year-old called 911.
“I need the sheriff and an ambulance real quick out here. There’s been a shooting,” Brock told the operator. “I shot her in the leg the first time and then I shot her in the shoulder.”
Brock told operators that he shot the woman because he had been threatened by a stranger on the phone and thought the driver and caller were working together.
“Guy on the phone trying to get money out of me,” he said. “He was telling me he was going to kill me and the family and everybody else around.”
Hall could be heard pleading for help in the 911 call.
Police say the elderly man received a call from a scammer threatening his family and told him that a relative had been arrested. The scammer ordered Brock to pay $12,000, police say. At the same time, authorities say, Hall, unaware of the circumstances, was instructed through the Uber app to pick up a package at Brock’s home in South Charleston, Ohio.
Brock was arrested and charged with murder.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Investigators said they tracked the scammer’s call to Canada but believe it came from a burner phone number.
Last year there were more than 33,000 reports of imposter scams targeting family members.
Adam Gana, an attorney who represents elderly victims of fraud, spoke with Inside Edition.
“Elderly people are constantly getting defrauded in America today,” Gana says. “You should be expected to see more and more stories like this as the scammers have become more sophisticated.”
A spokesperson from the sheriff’s office says Hall made no threats or assaults toward Brock and that she asked him about the package she was sent to retrieve through the Uber app. Uber says they are cooperating with the investigation.
