- Noemi Guzman, the woman who police says stabbed a young boy at Walmart, faced no bond restrictions preventing her from entering stores.
- She was acquitted by reason of insanity in 2025 for stabbing her father and remained free in the community.
- Guzman previously destroyed a church rectory and had multiple protective orders filed against her.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The woman who police say shoplifted a knife and stabbed a young boy at a Central Omaha Walmart was allowed to remain in the community despite a history of violent attacks, including stabbing her father and destroying a church rectory.
Noemi Guzman was acquitted by reason of insanity in February 2025 for a case involving the stabbing of her father, whom she also attempted to set on fire, in March 2024. The court ordered a mental health evaluation for Guzman and allowed her to remain in the community as long as she passed annual reviews.
Following the recent stabbing of the boy, questions emerged about how Guzman was able to enter a Walmart and apparently shoplift the weapon used in the attack.
"She was not under any bond restrictions that would prevent her from, say, going into a Walmart," Nissa Jones, the criminal division lead for the Douglas County Attorney’s Office, said in an exclusive interview with KMTV.
Jones said an investigation is underway and her office has begun gathering evidence.
In addition to attacking her father on March 3, 2024, Guzman also attacked the rectory at St. Frances Cabrini, a Catholic Church in Little Italy. The rectory was the home of Father Damian Zuerlein, who barricaded himself in a room on the top floor and called 911 when Guzman first broke in.
"Yeah, it's not something a 68-year-old normally does is crawl out of the window. Go down a ladder," Zuerlein said.
Zuerlein showed KMTV the rectory, where the floors are dirty and there is still broken glass in the window two years after that terrifying morning.
"Between the chemicals that SWAT used, and what she did, we pretty much lost everything in that rectory," Zuerlein said.
Multiple people had filed protective orders against Guzman, including her next door neighbors in 2018 and her stepmother in 2024.
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