Police fatally shot a woman who they said cut a 3-year-old boy in the face during an alleged kidnapping attempt at a Walmart in Omaha, Nebraska, Tuesday morning.
Two officers shot the woman, Noemi Guzman, after she cut the boy and refused to drop a knife she had stolen from the store, the police department said in a news release.
Guzman, 31, made multiple threats with the weapon before the officers opened fire, the department said.
The child was taken to the hospital with a large cut across his face and is expected to recover, Omaha Deputy Police Chief Scott Gray said at a news conference. The release described his injury as non-life-threatening.
No officers were injured, the department said in a post on X.
Officers were called to the store on 72nd and Pine streets around 9:13 a.m. local time. Gray said a person had called 911 and a woman asked for police.
“Another voice could be heard in the background, saying, ‘Stop. Keep walking,'” he said.
When officers arrived around 9:20 a.m., they encountered a woman outside the Walmart “holding a knife to a 3-year-old child that was in a shopping cart,” Gray said.
“The officers gave the suspect commands,” he said. “There is video that shows the suspect swiping the knife at the child, cutting him across the face. Officers at that time, at least one officer, fired their weapon, and the suspect is deceased at this scene.”
Gray said that the child was with a “caretaker” inside the store when the woman approached them and pulled out a large knife. He said the woman “took possession of the child, essentially kidnapping the child” and gave the caretaker commands to walk out of the store.
The woman followed and kept a knife to the child, Gray said. Outside of the store, the woman and the caretaker had a verbal “back-and-forth” until police arrived.
Gray said it appears that the woman may have shoplifted the knife from Walmart, and there is no indication that she knew the child or caretaker. It’s unclear why the woman approached them, he said.
A spokesperson for Walmart said that “violence like this is unacceptable” and that it is working with police.
