A Charleston Lyft Driver Reported Being Hit After Canceling a Ride. A Grand Jury Indicted the Rider.

What the criminal complaint says

Mcleod ordered a Lyft to his home on the 1300 block of Renaissance Circle, according to the complaint. The driver said nobody answered when he called from outside. He canceled and tried to leave.

The complaint alleges Mcleod struck the car and the two argued. The driver got out and said Mcleod hit him several times in the face, injuring his lip and cheek and breaking a tooth, WCHS reported.

How police found him

Charleston police used the Lyft account to trace Mcleod, but nobody answered at his home, WCHS reported. Officers obtained a warrant and took him into custody. In December 2024, the station reported that he was being held at South Central Regional Jail on a $2,500 cash-only bond.

The charge after the indictment

WCHS listed the case among 33 indictments handed down by the Kanawha County grand jury in January 2025. “Cantrell Jacob Kennedy-McCleod, 39, was indicted on a malicious wounding charge following an incident in December 2023, where he hit a Lyft driver multiple times after a verbal altercation,” the station reported.

“According to a criminal complaint filed with the Kanawha County Magistrate Court, McCleod ordered the Lyft to his residence on the 1300 block of Renaissance Circle, but when the driver arrived to the address, no one responded so he attempted to leave,” WCHS reported.

WCHS spelled the name Mcleod in its December 2024 arrest report and Kennedy-McCleod in its January 2025 indictment report.

Sources

• WCHS, “Charleston man accused of striking Lyft driver multiple times, court records say,” by Matthew Schaffer, December 1, 2024 (updated December 2, 2024)
• WCHS, “Kanawha County Grand Jury hands down 33 indictments,” January 24, 2025

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