The 36-year-old woman who shot an AR-15 rifle inside Pastor Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston on Sunday was known by police to have had mental health issues, and at least six arrests under a male name, Houston police said Monday.
The alleged shooter, Genesse Ivonne Moreno, 36, was killed at the scene when off-duty officers returned fire, officials said. Commander Christopher Hassig of the Houston Police Department Homicide Division said the woman used male aliases in the past, including Jeffrey Escalante, but was female. He confirmed the woman had a “Palestine” sticker on the AR-15’s rifle butt.
The homicide commander said antisemitic writings ascribed to the suspect indicate she’d had a dispute between her and her ex-husband and his family — some of whom are Jewish.
The incident at Lakewood Church — which draws tens of thousands to multiple services on Sundays — saw two members of the church’s paid security detail kill the alleged perpetrator and critically wound the suspect’s 7-year-old son who accompanied the shooter.
An unidentified man, 57, was also shot and hospitalized. His wounds were not life-threatening and he was subsequently released, said Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
Chief Finner said Christopher Moreno, an off-duty Houston police officer who is not related to the shooter, was one of two security people working for the church who engaged the shooter. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said TABC Agent Adrian Herrera was also working as private security for the church.
The two law-enforcement personnel, TABC Chair Kevin Lilly said, “held their ground in the face of fire at point-blank range. They were a wall between worship and terror, between freedom of religion and murder.”
The suspect told security personnel she had a bomb, but no explosives were found. Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said Monday no hazardous materials were found at the scene.
In an email to its members, Lakewood offered comfort after the incident.
“Evil may cast a temporary shadow but it will never extinguish the light of God’s amazing love,” pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen, and Spanish language pastors Danilo and Gloria Montero wrote. “In moments of uncertainty and pain, it is our faith that sustains us, guiding us and illuminating the path toward healing and hope. Together, as a united church family, God will cause us to rise.”
Lakewood spokesman Don Iloff told The Houston Chronicle the church may consider new security measures after the shooting.
Sunday’s shooting points up the need for houses of worship to have security plans in place, law enforcement and legal experts say.
Stephen Willeford, the Texas firearms instructor who confronted and exchanged fire with a mass shooter who had just killed 26 worshippers on Nov. 5, 2017, inside the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, said smaller congregations often don’t have the financial ability to hire armed guard.
“If you cannot afford a paid security team, like Joel Osteen does, then a team that is volunteer and trained together and works together” is vital, Mr. Willeford said in a telephone interview.
He said leaders at the West Freeway Church of Christ in Fort Worth organized such a group of lay volunteers after the Sutherland Springs killings and in 2019 confronted and killed a shotgun-wielding assailant who killed two church members.
“You can’t stop evil from happening,” said Mr. Willeford, now a spokesman for the Gun Owners of America. “But you can shorten the time it has to do evil.”
Gun rights advocate John R. Lott Jr., who has studied mass shootings and who credits law-abiding gun owners with making a difference in numerous such situations, said legislation banning concealed-carry of firearms in certain locations such as schools and churches is an open invitation to violence.
“If you make it illegal for people to carry guns into areas, what you unintentionally do is actually create magnets for an attacker,” Mr. Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, told The Washington Times.
He said assailants long for lasting notoriety.
“While these guys may be crazy, in some sense they’re not stupid,” Mr. Lott said. “They know the more people they kill, the more media attention that they’re going to get. And they know if they go to a place where their victims aren’t able to go and defend themselves, they’re going to be more successful in killing more people.”