A Black woman who went viral over a story about a Black man assaulting her with a brick has been accused of scamming GoFundMe donors out of thousands of dollar
Roda Osman, 33, was charged with felony theft by deception after people donated over $40,000 following her viral story, according to charging documents obtained by KRPC. Reporters said she agreed to surrender herself to Houston police on Wednesday (January 17) but didn’t show up. The GoFundMe has since been taken down.
Osman blew up on social media in September after a video showed her with gruesome injuries from a Black man. She tearfully claimed the assailant threw a brick at her after the woman declined to give him her phone number outside a Houston club.
“What have I ever to anybody in my life to deserve this,” she said. “I have never done anything in my life to hurt anybody. Literally, a man asked me for my number and I said no. And he picked up a brick, in front of so many men, and was like ‘what are you going to do?’”
Police responded to reports of an aggravated assault on September 3, making contact with Osman and a female friend. Osman was reportedly intoxicated and aggressive when speaking with officers at the time and provided detectives with the phone number of her friend, who doesn’t live in Houston.
According to the original police report, Osman claims she was assaulted on Schumacher Lane and suspected the brick-throwing man was her Uber driver. Surveillance footage obtained by police didn’t support her initial statements. Video showed a man, later identified as Olan Douglas, smacking Osman in the face with a water bottle outside a vehicle, charging documents read.
Osman’s friend doesn’t believe the victim was struck with a brick, records state. Police claim they didn’t make contact again with Osman until September 19, when she reportedly altered her story and hung up on investigators over the phone.
Detectives later received a tip about a…
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