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Authorities in Omaha, Nebraska, reported that police officers were compelled to fatally shoot a woman accused of abducting and injuring a young boy with a knife at a Walmart. This information was provided by Deputy Chief Scott Gray.
On Tuesday, law enforcement in Omaha responded to a distressing incident where a woman allegedly attacked a toddler with a knife after forcibly taking him from another shopper inside a Walmart store.
According to Deputy Chief Scott Gray, the woman approached a female customer accompanied by a boy aged 2 or 3, brandishing a large kitchen knife. She then seized the child, effectively carrying out a kidnapping.
The woman instructed the boy’s guardian to move ahead of the shopping cart while she followed closely, holding the child at knifepoint, Gray explained. The group exited the Walmart, heading down a driveway, where a heated exchange ensued between the two women until police officers arrived.
Responding to an emergency call, officers reached the Walmart located at 1606 S. 72nd St. and issued commands to the suspect. At that moment, she began slashing at the young boy, injuring his face, Gray recounted.
Two officers fired at the suspect, and she died at the scene, police said.
Body-worn camera images police released show the woman raising a knife over the young boy sitting in a shopping cart as the officer aims a gun at her.
After the shooting, the child’s guardian and a bystander removed the child from the cart and rendered aid. The child was being treated at a hospital for a large laceration across the left side of his face and to a hand, Gray said. He is expected to survive.
It’s unclear what provoked the suspect. Gray said the two women did not know each other. The relationship between the boy and his caretaker wasn’t clear.
Police identified the suspect as 31-year-old Noemi Guzman.
Investigators determined through store surveillance video that Guzman shoplifted the knife from inside the store, then approached the woman and child in a shopping aisle and brandished the knife.
The event appears to be an isolated incident, Gray said. The Walmart was largely empty as police continued their investigation, he said.
The actions inside the store wouldn’t necessarily have drawn attention from other shoppers, he said.
“They kind of just purposely but casually walk out of the store, so I don’t think anybody was actually looking at them as being a suspect of anything,” Gray said.
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