Ran dell Busch, a 27-year-old Black male from Omaha, was shot on the night of July 26, 2015, near 18th and Emmet Streets in northeast Omaha after police responded to a ShotSpotter alert around 10:38 p.m. Officers found him critically wounded; he was taken to Creighton University Medical Center, where his condition was described as critical but stable in the hours after the shooting.
The gunfire was reported in or near the backyard of a home, and investigators began treating the case as a shooting with life-threatening injuries. He died more than three weeks later, on Wednesday, August 19, 2015, and the Omaha Police Department reclassified the case as a homicide.
In the months and years before that night, Busch had intersected with violence around the same corner: he was shot there the previous September, and separate reporting notes he had also been shot in 2012 during a confrontation after running from officers. These earlier incidents formed a grim backdrop as detectives canvassed the neighborhood again in late July 2015, seeking witnesses and surveillance that could explain who ambushed him and why.
After his death, police announced a homicide investigation and asked for tips, but public reports did not name a suspect. News accounts at the time stated that no arrests had been made and did not identify anyone charged in connection with Busch s killing; the case has appeared on unsolved-case and cold-case listings in subsequent years. Authorities continued to encourage anyone with information to contact Omaha Crime Stoppers or the Omaha Police Department.
