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An 81-year-old man from West Virginia is accused of fatally shooting an innocent Uber driver after falling victim to a scam. He claimed that he had received threats of violence against himself and his family unless he paid $12,000.
Disturbing 911 recordings obtained by Inside Edition provide further insight into the events of the shooting on March 25. The incident resulted in the death of 61-year-old Loletha Hall and landed William Brock in custody facing a murder charge.
“I need the sheriff and an ambulance real quick out here. There’s been a shooting,” he told the operator.
The elderly man confessed to shooting the victim in the leg initially and then in the shoulder, stating that he singled her out due to threats he had received from an unknown individual over the phone.
“Guy on the phone trying to get money out of me,” Brock says. “He was telling me he was going to kill me and the family and everybody else around.”
The scammer told Brock that a relative had been incarcerated and ordered him to pay $12,000 to secure his release, police have said.
Brock told the operator that he assumed the death-threat scammer was working with Hall, who had been tricked by the same scammer and could be heard in the call pleading for help after being shot.
Investigators have reportedly tracked the scammer’s call to Canada but believe he made it using a burner phone.
The driver had also been contacted by the same person or an accomplice, instructing her through the Uber app to pick up a package for delivery from Brock’s home, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said.
When she arrived, Brock allegedly ordered her to identify the person who contacted her and grabbed her phone as he refused to let her leave.
Shocking dash cam video captured from Hall’s car shows Brock approaching her while pointing a revolver at her. When she tried to get in her vehicle and leave, he allegedly struggled with her and shot her dead.
Hall was rushed to to Miami Valley Hospital, where she died during surgery.
“Hall, suffering from medical conditions and unarmed, made no threats or assaults toward Mr. Brock, and made no demands, other than to ask about the package she was sent to retrieve through the Uber App,” the sheriff’s office spokesperson told WHIO in a statement.
“Due to there being no active threat presented by Ms. Hall at any time during the encounter, and Mr. Brock’s failure to contact authorities for assistance while brandishing a firearm, during which he fired at and struck Ms. Hall multiple times, he was arrested and charged with murder,” the rep added.
Brock has pleaded not guilty to murder and his bail was set at $200,000.
“The Clark County Sheriff’s Office would like to take the opportunity to again remind residents, especially our older citizens, that no Law Enforcement Agency or Court will make contact with anyone in the manner of this case to solicit cash for bail,” the office told CBS News in a statement.
It urged residents “to use extreme caution when being contacted unexpectedly by subjects claiming to be relatives incarcerated in a correctional facility.”
