Lyft driver who attacked country singer Clare Dunn arrested, charged

The Lyft driver who attacked singer Clare Dunn was apprehended nearly 6 weeks after the attack took place.

“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,” Dunn said regarding the June 25 attack.

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The singer and the friend she was riding with had an uncomfortable feeling about the driver, and now wish they had not pushed aside the “alarm bells.”

Dunn’s friend was the first to be dropped off at home, and Dunn remained in the car as the driver became more and more agitated as they proceeded. Less than a mile from Dunn’s house, the driver became enraged when Dunn informed him he’d missed a turn.

“He was screaming at me,” Dunn said. “And I just knew in that moment that I wasn’t going to get on that interstate with him. I wasn’t going to go quietly where he wanted to take me. And I think he realized maybe this girl was going to be more trouble than she’s worth.”

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“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,” she recalled. Dunn said that when she came too she heard herself screaming and saw headlights. 

“He ended up just leaving me alone at that point and took off,” she said. 

Dunn, face bleeding, ran the rest of the way to her house. “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.”

After the attack, the driver marked the ride as “completed” in the Lyft app, preventing Dunn from accessing information about him since the transaction was supposedly completed.

Dunn was however able to forward a photo and her Lyft receipt to the police which aided in his apprehension.

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Albert Boakye, 46, has been charged with misdemeanor assault. He was booked into the Nashville Metro jail Tuesday and is now free on $1,000 bond.  

Dunn is best known for her song “Get Out,” and has opened for stars like Florida Georgia Line, Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, and Trace Adkins. ‘Honestly: A Personal Collection EP’ was released on June 12, 2020 as her first release with Big Yellow Dog Music. 

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