Loletha Hall
On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, a relative told me that his friend and former neighbor went out the previous morning on an Uber call, but never came home. Loletha’s finance, McArthur Tinker, Jr., filed a missing person report that day. Shortly afterward, Mac learned that Loletha had been shot by the owner of the house where she had been instructed to pick up a package and had died in surgery.
Stunned, Mac watched Lt. Kristopher Shultz brief reporters at the investigative scene. Schultz said that "[it was reported that there was an assault on the homeowner here at the residence, it was an elderly male, and that he used a firearm to defend himself in the course of that assault . . .” Police insinuated that Ms. Hall was a scammer who attempted to defraud 81-year-old retired farmer William Brock of thousands of dollars. According to police, Brock said that a caller demanded money and threatened to kill him and a relative. After the call, Brock claimed, an angry black woman came to his door with a knife and attacked him. In fear for his life, he shot her. According to Schultz Brock then “retreated” to his house and called 911.
While the police talked to reporters, they waited for a warrant to search Loletha’s car. And in that car was a dash camera, which Mac had recently installed. Apparently, however, no one at the crime scene had glanced inside the car long enough to notice the camera before talking to reporters.
Before the dash camera video was released, while online strangers celebrated Loletha’s death as a justifiable homicide, Mac talked to me about Loletha.
Max said that Loletha was loving, kind to her friends and family and a wonderful mother to her son Mario. When Mac and she reconnected in 2021, she was the same sweet person he had known in junior highschool; and he was touched when she showed him a picture of them together before he left for the army in 1981. Mac also told me that not only was it out of character for Loletha to be aggressive, she had two titanium knees and was being evaluated the next day for a hip replacement. Hardly a woman who could attack someone with a knife. And she had no criminal record. Nevertheless, some friends and family stopped speaking to Mac.
When the police looked at the video, a very different story from Brock’s unfolded. As Mac had told me, Loletha was in no condition to attack anyone. She limped up the steps to the door, cell phone in hand; William Brock came out with a pistol. Startled and afraid, Loletha tried to retreat to her car. Brock followed. The two “ ‘walk[ed] out of view from the camera. What sounds like several gunshots are then heard. Hall can be heard screaming for help. At one point, Brock says: “I’ll shoot your other leg.’ “ After three shots, Brock went inside, called 911, and told the operator that he had been attacked on his property and shot the person in self defense.
As a supporter of the police, having family in law enforcement, I sadly ask: why did Lt. Schultz seem to think it was ok for Brock to talk to a threatening scammer multiple times and not call 911? Did he think it was ok for Brock to open the door to Loletha instead of staying locked inside and dialing 911? And didn’t it seem odd that the police accepted Brock shooting someone three times before “retreating” to the safety of his house to finally dial 911?
And, even more telling, why didn’t the Lt. finish his investigation - maybe even look at the video of the crime- before branding Loletha Hall a criminal shot while attacking an elderly man with a knife?
William Brock has been arrested for kidnapping and murder, and new charges have been added. Police say that the scammer who called Brock was the same person who paid Uber for Loletha to pick up a package. The scammer is at large. Brock is out on bond. Mario’s mother is dead. Loletha has been buried. And Mac has lost the woman it took him 40 years to find his way back to.
Note: Many of the early reports and online celebrations have been removed from the internet.
Video with audio. Interview with Brock: https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/81-year-old-pleads-not-guilty-to-murder-of-uber-driver-following-scam-call-confusion-william-brock-clark-county-ohio-victim-loletha-hall-body-camera-footage-911-call-investigation
https://www.thechapelofpeace.com/lo-letha-m-hall/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/15/ohio-man-charged-fatal-shooting-uber-driver - quotation.
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