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Lakewood Church shooting
Shooting attack in Texas, U.S. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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On February 11, 2024, a shooting occurred at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, perpetrated by 36-year-old Genesse Moreno.
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Shooting
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Witnesses at Lakewood Church stated that they heard multiple shots fired around 2:00 pm CST, the start time of the Spanish-language services.[4][5]
The shooter, Genesse Moreno, claimed to have a bomb in her backpack, but no bomb was subsequently found.[6][7] She also sprayed "some type of substance on the ground".[8] She shot a 47-year-old man in the leg, wounding him.[9][6][10]
Moreno said "Stay calm, all I need is help,"[11] then proceeded to fire more rounds.
Two off-duty officers, serving as security at the church, killed Moreno after she pointed an AR-15 at them. Moreno's seven-year-old son was shot in the exchange of gunfire.[7] The child was taken to the Texas Children's Hospital in critical condition.[6] Moreno was shot and killed four minutes after entering the church.[11]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation says she fired around 30 shots during the shooting.[12][13]
Reports of a second shooter caused some alarm among Houston residents, leading police to evacuate businesses in the commercial district. Police confirmed that there was no second shooter.[14]
The wounded 47-year-old man was released from the hospital by February 12.[7] The seven-year-old had a portion of the frontal lobe of his brain surgically removed,[15][16] and had his breathing tube removed after 13 days.[16] His grandmother Rabbi Walli Carranza urged people to "demand that no one's second amendment rights overtake an innocent child's inherent right to life".[16] After being released from the hospital, the boy lived with his paternal grandmother until her death the next year.[17]
Camera footage from body cameras and surveillance cameras was released by the police.[11]
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Perpetrator
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Police confirmed the following day that they identified the shooter as 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno (August 21, 1987[18] – February 11, 2024).[19] Moreno was raised in Conroe, Texas, and had both a criminal record and documented mental health issues.[7][20] Carranza, her ex-mother-in-law, said that she had schizophrenia that caused her to become violent,[21] and claimed that "What was needed for years was a collaborative mental health and law enforcement response".[11] Moreno legally obtained her weapon in December 2023; Carranza criticized the lack of a red flag law in Texas.[21]
Carranza unsuccessfully petitioned for conservatorship of Moreno's son, the injured child, in 2022.[22]
As of February 19, 2024[update], no motive is known.[7] Police confirmed that Moreno's AR-15–style rifle had a "Palestine" sticker on it and claimed that antisemitic writings had been discovered.[23][24] According to the Anti-Defamation League, Moreno had made multiple comments propagating anti-semitic conspiracy theories, praising Osama bin Laden, and promoting terrorist organizations.[25]
Moreno previously used the alias Jeffery Escalante; although she at no point was identified as anything other than a cisgender female, her use of this alias caused far-right commentators, including Libs of TikTok and Fox News,[26] to spread misinformation claiming that the shooter was a transgender woman.[21][27][28] Fox News later edited its article to remove the claim.[26] Republican politicians, including Ted Cruz,[29] Donald Trump Jr.,[29] Marjorie Taylor Greene,[26] and Josh Hawley[26] promoted the claim. This continued an ongoing trend of conservative commentators claiming that the LGBT community is to blame for increasing gun violence in America.[29] However, this claim is contradicted by statistics which show trans people are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence.[26][21]
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Responses
Lakewood Church asked people to "pray for Lakewood and our community".[9] Joel Osteen, its pastor, said: "Of course, we're devastated. We don't understand why these things happen. We're going to pray for the 5-year-old little boy, the lady who is deceased and the other gentleman. We're going to stay strong and continue to move forward. We don’t understand why these things happen."[6]
References
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