As hard as we try, staying one step ahead of scammers is difficult.
I am appalled and saddened by what happened to Loletha Hall, a 61-year-old Ohio woman who was gunned down, allegedly by an 81-year-old man, last month. Both parties were apparently victims of a scam.
William Brock was indicted on three counts of murder and one each of kidnapping and felonious assault, according to news reports.
Here’s how the scam works:
The scammer tells the target that one of his close relatives is in jail or has been in an accident and needs cash immediately. The scammer usually asks the target to send money using an app.
In the Ohio case, Brock told police that prior to the shooting he had received threatening phone calls from someone who attempted to get money from him claiming one of Brock’s relatives was being held in jail. Brock says the caller then threatened him and his family, news reports said.
Brock alleges he thought Hall was working with a man who called him pretending to be an officer at the local court.
The scammer apparently had Hall, an Uber driver, go to Brock’s home to pick up a package with the money. When Hall arrived, she was confronted by Brock, who held her at gunpoint. When Hall tried to escape, Brock allegedly shot her several times, according to news accounts.
You could argue that this was a tragic accident, except it wasn’t.
It could have been prevented if Brock had called 911 and taken down the license plate number of the Uber vehicle instead of allegedly playing cops and robbers with a deadly weapon.
And — this is something that many of us don’t like to talk about — what role did race and age play in this shooting?
Brock is white and Hall is Black. Would he have been so quick to allegedly shoot had Hall been a white woman?
I understand why seniors may feel especially vulnerable, but holding someone at gunpoint and allegedly shooting them without provocation is such poor judgment that you have to wonder if he was mentally impaired.
Sadly, we’ve seen this scenario play out before.
Last year, an 84-year-old white homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, was accused of shooting 16-year-old Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager, after he went to the man’s house mistakenly to pick up his younger brothers.
Andrew Daniel Lester, who has pleaded not guilty, was charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action.
In 1994, Renisha McBride, a Black woman, was fatally shot after she knocked on the door of a white homeowner in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, late at night.
Theodore Wafer, 54, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 17 to 32 years in prison for the deadly encounter.
Scam calls add another layer of anxiety to the lives of seniors. At this point, I don’t even answer unknown callers.
Unfortunately, a scheme like the one that resulted in Hall getting killed could happen again.
This tragedy also should start a conversation about gun ownership and aging.
Frankly, at what age is someone too old to own a gun?
Senior care experts say we should approach the subject as we would the issue of safe driving.
“Memory, thinking and judgments, as well as physical and behavioral competence issues related to an elderly person’s safe operation of a motor vehicle, apply to firearms, too,” according to the National Institutes of Health.
Carol Bradley Bursack, an expert in elder care and author of “Minding Our Elders,” points out “cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease (or other forms of dementia) and mental health disorders, such as depression and psychosis are the biggest red flags for families to look for when deciding if it is still safe for a loved one to own firearms.”
More than 17 million people age 65 and older own a firearm, the National Institutes of Health said.
“They have the highest rate of suicide by a firearm, and recent data suggest that a disproportionate number apply to carry a concealed weapon,” the agency said. “At least one new handgun has been designed and marketed for older people.”
Given what is happening, I don’t see how marketing guns to an aging population is the answer.
The best way to stop scam calls is to ignore them.
