Lyft driver arrested for assaulting country singer Clare Dunn

Country singer Clare Dunn has revealed in tears how a carpool driver pulled her out of the car and violently threw her face-first into the ground – with the alleged driver arrested early on Tuesday, according to online records.

“This has been hell,” the “Get Out” singer told People magazine in tears, sharing a photo of her bloodied and bruised face in the June 26 attack in Tennessee.

The Colorado star was recording in Nashville when she and a friend shared a Lyft house after a girls’ night out, with the boyfriend dropped off first, Dunn said.

The driver then became increasingly restless as the 34-year-old singer asked him to take a slower route avoiding freeways and then pointed out that he had missed his turn, she reminded People .

“He was yelling at me,” Dunn recalls.

“And I knew just then that I wasn’t going to ride that freeway with him.” I wasn’t going to go quietly to where he wanted to take me. And I think he realized that maybe this girl was going to cause more trouble than she was worth, ”she said.

The driver then pulled over less than a mile from her home, she said.

“Before I could even take off my shoes or get my phone to try to call 911, he grabbed me by the collar, ripped me off the backseat and slammed me head first into a ditch. “she told People.

“Somehow in the fight, I thought I called 911, but I didn’t even get the right number. But it was a miracle. They called me back.

“And when I came to myself, I was screaming and I saw headlights. He ended up leaving me alone at that point and left, ”she said, recalling how she had run home with blood on her bruised face.

“He knew what he was doing,” she said of the accused driver.

“He tapped ‘end ride’ after the ride was finished,” she said, claiming that this removes key driver information from the passenger app.

The singer said she and her friend later confessed that they had sensed a “wake-up call” about the driver and were tormented for ignoring them.

“I had a hunch that something was wrong and I ignored it,” Dunn said, saying she assumed she was “thinking too much about it.”

“I blame myself,” she said, crying.

Nashville Subway Police on Monday issued an alert for suspect Albert Boakye, 46, and he was taken to Metro Jail at 12:46 a.m. Tuesday, according to online records. He was released just after 4 a.m., with no details immediately available on possible links.

He had been the subject of an arrest warrant for assault after Dunn provided a photo of him along with his trip information from the Lyft app, police told WKRN.

Lyft told People mag that he contacted the singer and also helped police with the investigation.

“Safety is fundamental to Lyft. The behavior described is appalling and we permanently removed the driver from the Lyft platform as soon as we learned of this incident, ”a spokesperson told the magazine.