Uber and Gig-Worker Safety

An Ohio jury convicted 83-year-old William J. Brock of murder, felonious assault and kidnapping for fatally shooting Uber driver Lo-Letha Toland-Hall outside his South Charleston home in March 2024 after a bond-money phone scam deceived them both. Prosecutors said Brock, believing a caller’s threat-filled demand for $12,000 in supposed bail money, wrongly assumed Toland-Hall was part of the plot when she arrived to pick up a package she had been dispatched to collect, and shot the unarmed 61-year-old six times. Dashcam video from her Uber shows Brock holding a gun on her; he testified he acted in self-defense, claiming he feared for his life and was injured in a struggle over a car door, but jurors needed only about an hour to reject that account. Clark County Prosecutor Daniel Driscoll said “both families lost loved ones because of the scam” and noted the unidentified scammers behind the calls have not been caught, underscoring how aggressive fraud schemes are feeding real-world violence. Toland-Hall’s estate has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit seeking more than $25,000 in damages, and Brock is scheduled to be sentenced next week.