Sergii Savchenko survived the April attack, while the woman accused in the case remains at the center of an unresolved court process.
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Months after Sergii Savchenko left a Greenville hospital and returned home to his family, the criminal case over the attack that put him there remains unsettled. The Lyft driver, a Ukrainian refugee, survived 11 stab wounds after authorities say a passenger attacked him during an April 22 pickup and took his vehicle.
The recovery of Savchenko, who spent two days in the hospital, provides a different view of a case that returned to court in late August when a judge again denied bond for Naziyha La’Nay Weatherall, 22. His daughter, Anastasiia Savchenko, said her father drove for both Uber and Lyft and was working for Lyft when the attack occurred. Weatherall’s defense has said she was experiencing a severe mental health crisis and had requested the ride because she wanted to reach a police station. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have stressed the violence alleged against a driver who was doing his job.
Anastasiia Savchenko spoke publicly about her father in the days after the attack, when early reports had not identified him by name. She said the family came to the United States as Ukrainian refugees after fleeing the war about four years earlier. Her father, she said, did not speak much English and made money by driving passengers. According to her account, the April 22 trip started like an ordinary pickup. Her father greeted the passenger and began driving. What followed, she said, changed the family’s sense of safety in the community where they had resettled.
Savchenko’s daughter said he was attacked from behind after Weatherall entered the vehicle. Authorities have alleged that Weatherall stabbed him repeatedly and then took control of his car. Anastasiia said her father suffered wounds to his head, face and back. Those details were reported after he had been released from the hospital, where he spent two days. Earlier, at Weatherall’s first bond hearing, his daughter had said he was in the intensive care unit but stable. By April 27, the immediate medical crisis had eased enough for him to recover at home under the care of his wife.
The family’s relief at his survival was accompanied by concern about what the attack meant for his work. Anastasiia said her father planned to continue driving, but she did not want him to return to rideshare work. She called for more safety measures for drivers, speaking from the perspective of a daughter whose father had accepted a routine ride request and ended up hospitalized. Her comments did not establish how future attacks could be prevented, but they made clear that the consequences of the incident extended beyond the criminal charges and into the family’s decisions about work and personal security.
The law-enforcement account began with a passerby, not with the rideshare app. The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office said dispatchers received a report at about 2:30 p.m. April 22 about a man with a visible head wound near Haywood Road and East North Street. Deputies responded, found Savchenko and treated his injuries. Investigators then learned that he had been working as a rideshare driver and had responded to a request from an apartment complex in the East North Street area. Deputies said Weatherall had requested the ride, attacked him and taken the vehicle in an attempt to leave the area.
Weatherall was located shortly afterward, according to the sheriff’s office. Initial local reports listed charges of attempted murder, armed robbery and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Later reports, citing Greenville County jail records, described the property-related charge as carjacking resulting in bodily injury. The difference in wording matters because public news accounts can reflect different stages of a case or different records. What has remained consistent is that Weatherall is accused of a violent attack on Savchenko and of taking his vehicle afterward. No conviction has been reported.
Five days after the attack, the sheriff’s office confirmed that Weatherall had been having what it described as a mental health episode at the time of the incident. That official acknowledgment became more detailed months later when her defense attorney argued for bond. At an Aug. 28 hearing, the attorney said Weatherall had diagnoses that included schizophrenia and had been suffering severe delusions. The lawyer said she believed people were watching and listening to her and that she was under active threat. The defense said those fears were the reason she called for the Lyft in the first place.
According to the defense account, Weatherall’s intended destination was a police station. Her attorney said her mother had called the station to tell officers that Weatherall was on her way to make a report. During the ride, the lawyer said, the crisis worsened and Weatherall came to believe she was being trafficked. The defense said she panicked. That explanation was offered to the court as part of a request for release to a treatment setting; it was not a judicial finding about what Weatherall perceived or about whether she is legally responsible for the conduct alleged by prosecutors.
The defense also told the court that Weatherall had been medicated, was stable and competent, and had no prior criminal record. Her lawyer asked the judge to allow family members and a social worker to arrange placement in a dedicated treatment facility. Weatherall’s mother apologized to Savchenko’s family and said the conduct described by prosecutors was not characteristic of her daughter. The judge rejected the bond request. Reporting from the hearing said Weatherall was ordered to remain in custody while a psychological evaluation, then scheduled for September, was completed.
The prosecution’s argument returned the court’s attention to Savchenko. A solicitor emphasized that he had been working when he was stabbed 11 times and that his car was then taken. Savchenko’s wife appeared in court in his place, saying he remained too emotionally and mentally shaken to attend. She said he had not been seeking a confrontation and had simply been providing a service. Her statement linked the physical injuries from April to the longer recovery that family members said continued months afterward, even after he had left the hospital.
Lyft also responded publicly. The company said violence had no place in its community, that Savchenko’s well-being was its priority and that it had reached out to him and his family to offer support. Lyft said the rider accounts involved were permanently removed and that the company was assisting law enforcement. The statement addressed the company’s response after the incident, but it did not resolve the questions now before the criminal court, including the weight to be given to the defense’s mental-health evidence and whether the state can prove the charged offenses.
For Savchenko and his family, the clearest confirmed development is his survival and release from the hospital after the April attack. The criminal case, however, has not reached a publicly reported resolution. The latest reliable reporting reviewed here does not show a plea, verdict or trial date, leaving his recovery as a settled fact while Weatherall’s criminal responsibility remains for the court to determine.
Author note: Last updated October 17, 2026.