In video of Omaha bus stop incident, woman speaks out

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – The woman in a graphic video of an alleged group attack on an Omaha Metro bus at a stop near Omaha North High School spoke to reporters Saturday about the incident, sharing her account of what happened.

Rose Bacardi told First Alert 6 on Sunday that the unexpected confrontation quickly turned violent.

First Alert 6 reported on the attack near 33rd and Ames streets after the Omaha Police Officers Association posted video to social media. Omaha police said Bacardi and the other victim had visible injuries to their heads and faces — hard to miss as Bacardi sat and spoke with reporters in an Omaha park Saturday.

His account

Bacardi said she and her friend were riding the bus when a group took her belongings. She said the confrontation quickly turned violent and she believes she did not provoke the attack.

“They hit me from behind, as far as I remember, to be honest with you. And about four or five young guys – kids – hit me in the face,” she said.

Bacardi claims the group took his belongings and beat him outside the bus, attacking him and she tried to reach him.

“They hit me like I did something bad to them, and I didn’t do anything bad to them. I just wanted to get off the bus because my friend got off the bus,” she said.

Priority on safety

OPOA President Patrick Dempsey called the incident “devastating.”

“This is our community, and this mob mentality, to the best of my knowledge, should not be tolerated anywhere in the city of Omaha,” he said.

Bacardi said she wondered what changes Omaha Metro might make in response to the incident.

“I would definitely recommend that the city put those kids back on the school bus so that other people like me — people don’t realize I’m 50, I’m going to be 51 in December — I don’t have to worry when I get on a city bus that I’m going to get beaten up by kids again,” she said.

In a statement released Friday, Metro called the attack “unacceptable” and said everyone who uses its buses and transit hubs deserves to feel safe — and that it is working with police, schools and other community partners to ensure that.

His message to the group

In the meantime, Bacardi has a message for people in the video:

“What if I was your mother? Your daughter? Your sister? Your aunt? Would you want that to happen to him? Or to him – uncle, father, brother? Would you? I wouldn’t,” she said.

She also calls herself a survivor.

“I’m going to continue to survive. They couldn’t do anything to me. I lived in the woods for four years, homeless, because of a fire,” Bacardi said. “I survived a house fire. I survived cancer. I survived.”

Do you have any information?

OPD detectives are still investigating the attack. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Omaha Crime Stoppers at 402-444-STOP (7867).

First Alert 6 also reached out to Omaha Public Schools and City Councilwoman LaVonya Goodwin, but has not yet received a response.

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