A Nashville Lyft driver has been arrested for assaulting Clare Dunn and leaving her in a ditch on the side of the road.
Clare recently told the story of the horrific assault in an interview with People, sharing pictures of the injuries she suffered during the June 26 incident.
In the interview, Clare recounts that she and a close friend had ordered a Lyft around midnight after a night out in Nashville.
After dropping her friend off, the Lyft driver refused to take the route that Clare requested – and then became agitated and began screaming at her.
About a mile from her house, Clare says that the driver finally pulled over before pulling her out of the car and slamming her on the ground.
“Before I could even get my shoes off or get my phone to try and call 911, he grabbed me by the collar, ripped me out of the backseat and slammed me face-first down into a ditch.
Somehow in the scuffle, I thought I called 911, but I didn’t even get the number right. But it was a miracle. They called me back.
And when I came to, I was screaming, and I saw headlights. He ended up just leaving me alone at that point and took off.”
She suffered cuts and bruises to the face from the assault, and shared photos from the horrific incident with People and on her Instagram.
Clare ended up running the mile back to her house after the assault, and her friend told her the next morning that she had a bad feeling leaving her alone in the car with the driver.
After eventually seeking medical attention for her injuries, Clare filed a police report and was able to help authorities identify the driver as 46-year old Albert Boakye.
Boakye was arrested last night and booked into the Davidson County Jail for one count of misdemeanor assault, and was released at 4:00 AM.
For her part, Clare has retreated back to her Colorado farm, which she calls “a safe space” for her right now, and she’s gearing up to release a new EP In This Kind of Light this Friday, August 13.
In a statement to People, Lyft said that they permanently removed the driver from their platform as soon as they found out about the incident, and have also reached out to offer support to Clare.
But Clare is urging others to take precautions so that they don’t end up in the same position:
“I don’t want anyone else to go through it. Even if it just can keep one girl or one guy from going through this … he knew what he was doing.
He hit ‘complete the ride’ after it was done. I didn’t take a screenshot of his license information during the ride. All of that goes away when a ride is completed.
All I had was a little tiny profile picture and his first name. It’s a slow process if you don’t have all that info.”
It’s absolutely terrible what Clare went through – and it serves as a warning to others about the dangers of something like ordering a rideshare that we probably don’t give much thought to these days.
