The woman at the center of the viral brick assault that sparked social media discourse is now facing charges months after the incident.
In September, Roda Osman, dubbed online as “Brick Lady,” made a video saying a man struck her in the face with a brick because she didn’t want to give him her phone number outside a club in Houston, Texas. The assault left her with a visible bump on her cheek, and she called out the other men in the area for not intervening.
“This man just hit me in the face with a brick, and all these Black men just watched, and they don’t give a f…,” Osman said.
“What do you want us to do?” one of the men asked.
“I want y’all to be a man and do something,” she responded.
The Instagram live of her reaction immediately circulated on social media platforms, including TikTok and X, also known as Twitter. In addition, a now-deleted GoFundMe for the 33-year-old titled “Help Roda Recover” raised nearly $43,000 within weeks. Officials now claim that she used a bogus story to collect thousands of donations, local news reported.
“GoFundMe has zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform and cooperates with law enforcement investigations of those accused of wrongdoing,” a spokesperson told KPRC-TV in a statement. “The fundraiser has been removed from the platform, all donors have been refunded, and Roda Osman has been banned from using the platform for any future fundraisers.”
Police said that Osman’s account was not consistent during their investigation. During the initial interaction with responding officers on Sept. 3, she stuck with the original story that she was attacked after rejecting the man.
She informed them that the suspect could have been her Uber driver, whom she accused of being linked to human trafficking and attempted to kidnap her, according to charging documents obtained by the outlet. Her friend, who was visiting from out of town, was with her during the incident.
Days later, investigators tried to follow up with Osman but contacted her friend instead. She notably told them off the record that she didn’t think Osman was attacked with a brick.
When police got in touch with Osman via phone on Sept. 19, she claimed she decided to call an Uber as she and her friend were leaving a lounge that night. When the car, described as a dark-colored sedan, rolled up, she assumed it was her driver. While inside, she alleged a man — identified as Olan Douglas — was the one who hit her with the brick.
However, police said Osman kept changing her statement about where the assault happened and that she hung up on an officer during the discussion. Police pulled security footage from the area the next day and claimed the events didn’t align with her report.
In the video, Osman, her friend, and Douglas entered a lounge and left minutes later. They hung out near a white Maserati with another man and mingled before getting in the vehicle. When the three got out of the car, Osman and Douglas got into a confrontation. That’s when police alleged he hit her in the face with a water bottle. Prosecutors say she appeared to have initiated the conflict.
“They got into a car, they both got out of the car, and the defendant slapped the male, who then responded by slapping her back,” Keith Houston of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said to the news station. “He did have a water bottle in his hand. And we think that’s what left the mark on her, on her face. But it was mutual combat.”
According to KPRC-TV, police got a tip from a mental health advocate and content creator, Daphne Sutton, who told them that Osman’s GoFundMe was fraudulent and that she pulled a similar stunt in 2020.
Sutton said that Osman created a page claiming that a Black security guard hit her in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and requested $5,000 to help with her expenses. Local police told Houston detectives that they hadn’t received a report related to that incident.
Osman was charged with felony theft by deception but has not been taken into custody. She did not immediately respond to Atlanta Black Star’s request for comment on Thursday. But she did address the situation on social media.
“The violence that I have… suffered since Sept. 3 is just unbelievable. They tried to leave me for dead, but I’m still here, and I know this is a worthy cause to fight for,” she said on her Instagram story on Wednesday. “I have real ways to make money. I don’t have to get a GoFundMe for money.”
“HPD: Assaulting a Black woman. Not a crime,” she wrote in a follow-up post on Thursday morning. “HPD Again: Not remembering every single detail correctly after being hit over the head in the dark…Felony! Make it make sense! Y’all are weird and should be outraged.”
