Lakewood Church shooting: Spotlight on Texas gun laws after Houston megachurch attack

A motive for the shooting at the Houston megachurch remains unknown

Lakewood church shooter used rifle with ‘Palestine’ sticker, police say

The spotlight is on Texas gun laws after a woman with a history of mental illness and a criminal record was able to legally purchase a gun and walk into Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston.

Genesse Moreno, 36, opened fire at the church sparking a gunfight with two off-duty cops that left her son fighting for his life in hospital. He remains in critical condition.

In the days since, information has emerged about Moreno’s mental health and criminal history – raising questions around whether something could have been done to have prevented the shooting.

Police said she had legally purchased the AR-15 rifle in December 2023 — despite the fact that court records show that in 2022, she was arrested for a weapons misdemeanour charge.

Now all eyes are turning to Texas’ lax gun laws – particularly the state’s absence of red flag laws.

Red flag laws — which allow for police to intervene if someone shows signs that they are a danger to themselves or others. A court can take away their guns or prevent them from buying one.

The issue is, in Texas, there is no red flag law.

Key Points

• Here’s what we know about the megachurch shooting so far
• Woman shot dead by police after opening fire at church
• Who is Lakewood Church shooter Genesse Moreno?
• Who is pastor of Lakewood Church Joel Osteen?

[14 February 2024 00:59 · Io Dodds]

Moreno accused her family of hacking her online accounts

Genesse Moreno had accused her former mother-in-law Walli Carranza of spying on her by hacking into her online accounts, according to court documents seen by The Independent.

In an application for a protection order in July 2022, Moreno asked a court to ban Ms Carranza from contacting her or her child (Ms Carranza's grandchild) in any way, or going within 200 yards of them, their house, or their school.

"Respondent is trying to make me have a nervous breakdown for me to reat due to my mental illness[.] Such could result within the spectrum of jail or mental hospital, thus her acquiring custody," Moreno wrote.

The specific accusations are hard to credit. She claimed that the Carranza family were spying on her by hacking into a laundry list of her online accounts, and also appeared to claim that she received harassing text messages from FBI director Christopher Wray.

We don't know Ms Carranza's response to these claims, but both Ms Carranza and her son Enrique – Moreno’s ex-husband – have said in court documents that Moreno suffered from schizophrenia and paranoid delusions, and accused her of severe abuse towards the young child. Ms Carranza also told ABC-13 that she unsuccessfully attempted to get guardianship of the couple's child.

[14 February 2024 01:40 · Io Dodds]

'She has the right to own 40 guns and we can't do anything'

A Texas child services investigator bluntly told Moreno's family that did not have the "bandwidth" or legal authority to handle her case, according to Ms Carranza's affidavit.

My colleague Andrea Cavallier writes:

“The January 2020 incident with the open car door led to Moreno's case being handed over to a high risk investigator from the Montgomery County Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS).

“But according to Ms Carranza, the investigator was less than helpful.

“’I have children who were set on fire by their parents, so I don’t have the bandwidth to handle the case of a mother who can’t remember to shut the back door,’ he allegedly said.

“‘I don’t know why they assigned this to me. Guns are legal in Texas, and you don’t have to have a license for them. She has the right to own 40 of them and we can’t do anything about it.’

“He then described meeting with Moreno at her mother's house, only to find that the child was not present.

“‘She refused to tell us where she was living or with whom. So, we can’t tell you where [the child] is because she won’t tell us... we told her to bring him to the office tomorrow.’

“One week later, Moreno had still not reported to the DCFS office, and ’due to staffing shortages’ there was no follow-up. “

We’re attempting to contact the DCFS for comment.

[14 February 2024 02:24 · Io Dodds]

Conroe police deny any failings in dealing with shooter

Officials in Conroe, Texas are still being tight-lipped about Sunday's shooting and their past interactions with Moreno.

According to ABC-13, Conroe mayor Jody Czajkoski did not return requests for comment, and the Montgomery County district attorney's office referred questions to police.

For their part, the Conroe Police Department said it had reviewed all prior dealings with or about Moreno and determined that it had acted correctly.

"The review revealed that Conroe police personnel handled the calls appropriately and according to law," the department said.

"Nothing relayed to officers would give authority to arrest or require mental health emergency detention; nor would any of the information have been an indication that the suspect would commit such a heinous crime.

"The Conroe Police Department has no further information to share at this time. "

[14 February 2024 02:58 · Io Dodds]

What is Munchausen Syndrome by proxy?

One of the accusations made during Moreno's divorce case is that she was deliberately making her own son sick in order to pretend that his illness was more serious than it was.

In medical circles, this is known as Munchausen Syndrome by proxy – also referred to as "factitious disorder imposed on another".

"It is a psychiatric disorder in which the individual is fully cognisant of what they're doing, but very deliberately induces illness," Harvard Medical School professor Cathy Ayoub told Fox 26.

Clinical social worker Donna Boswell described such people as "operating with a great deal of deception and manipulation".

According to one court document seen by Fox, nurses found "adult pills" in her son's feeding tube on two occasions while he was in hospital.

The documents even claim that some medical professionals feared Moreno had intentionally caused her son to be born prematurely in order to induce health problems.

[14 February 2024 03:41 · Io Dodds]

Police called to Moreno's home six times in three years

The Conroe Police Department says it received at least six calls for service to Moreno's home over the past three years before the shooting.

The subjects of those calls spanned the gamut from welfare checks, through noise disturbances and loud music, to threats and harassment, according to KHOU-11.

However, the department did not give further details of the calls.

[14 February 2024 04:35 · Lauren Io Dodds]

Video shows Moreno loading her car before the attack

New videos obtained by ABC 13 show Genesse Moreno apparently preparing to commit the Lakewood Church shooting just hours before the violence began.

The videos, taken from a neighbour's home CCTV camera in Conroe, a northern suburb of Houston, show Moreno loading up her car from inside her garage while using a blue tarp to conceal her work.

At one point, she can be seen walking around her car with a brown trench coat folded over her arm. Moreno reportedly wore a trench coat during the attack.

Genesse Moreno seen in CCTV footage from a neighbour, obtained by ABC 13 (ABC 13)

[14 February 2024 05:56 · Io Dodds]

Texas Republicans have long opposed red flag laws

Texas politicians have long refused to consider so-called "red flag laws", which gun control activists claim could help prevent tragedies like this one.

Red flag laws allow a judge to temporarily ban someone from buying or possessing a firearm if their behaviour posses an imminent risk to themselves or others.

21 states currently have such laws on the books, with one study finding that California's law was applied to 58 people who threatened mass shootings within its first three years.

But even though 65 per cent of Texans supported such laws as of 2022, the state’s Republican-dominated legislature has steered well clear of them.

According to The Texas Tribune, governor Greg Abbott tried to pass a red flag law in the aftermath of the 2018 Santa Fe school shooting, but had to abandon the idea after a backlash from his rightward flank.

And in an interview with ABC 13 on Tuesday, State representative Matthew Schaefer called such efforts "pre-crime laws".

"When people talk about red flag laws, they're talking about taking away someone's Second Amendment rights before any crime has been committed," Mr Schaefer said.

"If a crime is being alleged or being committed, our law covers that.”

[14 February 2024 08:15 · Io Dodds]

Shooter 'constantly moved house so her child could not be found'

Court documents filed by Genesse Moreno's former mother-in-law paint a bleak picture of Moreno's life and her treatment of her young son.

In an affidavit filed in 2022, and seen by The Independent, Walli Carranza alleged that Moreno had moved house every few months since her son was born in 2017, returning regularly to her mother's house in order to collect a disability check.

The document accuses Moreno of repeatedly lying about where she and her son were living, and "constantly threaten[ing]" to abduct him out of the state or out of the country.

It also accuses Moreno of filing a false birth certificate which did not list her ex-husband Enrique Carranza as the father, claiming instead that the father was dead and that she did not know his name.

Despite this, Ms Carranza says that her son's hands were tied because he did not want to file criminal charges against her lest she be deported from the US, potentially along with her severely disabled son.

[14 February 2024 09:19 · Io Dodds]

ICYMI: 'She has the right to own 40 guns and we can't do anything'

A Texas child services investigator bluntly told the shooter’s family that did not have the "bandwidth" or legal authority to handle her case, according to court documents seen by The Independent.

An affidavit filed by Genesse Moreno’s former mother in law Walli Carranza alleges that Moreno, who reportedly suffered from schizophrenia, was abusive towards her former husband and her child, and was investigated in January 2020 for child neglect and endangerment.

Despite this, an investigator from the county allegedly told Ms Carranza: “I have children who were set on fire by their parents, so I don’t have the bandwidth to handle the case of a mother who can’t remember to shut the back door.

"I don’t know why they assigned this to me. Guns are legal in Texas, and you don’t have to have a license for them. She has the right to own 40 of them and we can’t do anything about it.”

Ms Carranza has accused local authorities of failing to prevent an entirely preventable tragedy.

[14 February 2024 10:14 · Io Dodds]

ICYMI: Neighbours claim shooter intimidated them with Nazi salutes

Genesse Moreno’s neighbours say that she intimidated them with guns and made Nazi salutes for several years before the shooting, my colleague Andrea Cavallier reports.

Residents in Conroe – a north Houston suburb – told local reports that Moreno was often seen with multiple guns, harassing and threatening them and making them fearful in their own neighbourhood.

“Her way of intimidation was to bring the gun cases in and out, crossbows. She’d come out, have her gun cases, do heil Hitler, flip you off, call you the b-word, or something. It was something every day,” one neighbour told KPRC, a Houston TV news station.

Another neighbour said Moreno had scrawled swastikas on her property and taunted her and her grandchildren multiple times. Another claimed she tried to run them over.

“I’ve been through hell. I have reported this, reported this and its gone on deaf ears,” said one neighbour, who gave her name as Jill. “I’ve had psychological officers out here that won’t answer their door. They won’t do anything. [They say,] ‘until she hurts you there is nothing we can do’.”

You can read Andrea’s full story here.