Police: Boy hurt in shooting at megachurch son of suspect
HOUSTON — The young boy who was critically injured in a shooting Sunday at a Texas megachurch is the son of the shooter, authorities said Monday.
Houston Police Commander Chris Hassig identified the shooter as 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno and said at an afternoon news conference that Moreno had a history of mental illness, including being placed under emergency detention in 2016.
The boy, who authorities described as a 7-year-old, remained in critical condition Monday with a gunshot wound to the head. He had been described as a 5-yearold on Sunday.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said it remained too soon to identify a motive for the shooting at celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, but officials said they were looking into a dispute involving Moreno and the family of Moreno’s ex-husband, adding that investigators also found antisemitic writings by the shooter.
Hassig also said Moreno’s Ar-15-style rifle had a “Palestine” sticker on the buttstock. He described Moreno as a “lone wolf ” who was not acting as any part of a larger group.
Moreno was killed after pointing the weapon at the security officers, authorities said.
A man in his 50s was also injured in the shooting.
Lakewood is regularly attended by 45,000 people weekly, making it the third-largest megachurch in the U.S., according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
Osteen said the violence could have been worse if the shooting had happened during the earlier and larger late-morning service.
At a news conference Sunday, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said the shooter wore a trenchcoat and backpack and was armed with a long rifle when the person entered the church.
Moreno began shooting before being confronted by two off-duty officers — a Houston police officer and a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agent — who returned fire, Finner said.
Finner said the shooter told officers after being shot that there was a bomb, but a search found no explosives. The declaration of a bomb was also noted in the search warrant affidavit, which said the shooter had a “yellow color rope and substances consistent with the manufacture of explosive devices.”
Finner and other authorities at the scene praised the officers, who have not been identified, for taking down the shooter.
“They stepped up and did their job,” Finner said.
It was unclear how the boy, who was taken to a Houston children’s hospital, was struck by gunfire.
When asked whether the boy was shot by one of the off-duty officers returning fire on the suspect, Finner said he did not want to speculate but added: “That suspect put that baby in danger.”
All of the gunfire was in a church hallway and none of the violence spilled into the main sanctuary, Hassig said, describing the confrontation as a “gun battle” that lasted several minutes.