Megachurch shooter would aim guns at kids as police 'ignored' neighbour outcries
The megachurch shooter who left a 7-year-old boy in critical condition had previously aimed guns at children - as police "ignored" neighbours' outcries.
Genesse Ivonne Moreno, 36, opened fire at celebrity pastor Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church on Sunday morning sending worshippers scrambling for safety before being gunned down by two off-duty security officers.
Moreno used both male and female aliases, but investigators found through interviews and past police reports that Moreno identified as female, according to Houston Police Commander Chris Hassig.
The shooter, who had a lengthy criminal record and previously used the name Jeffrey Escalante Moreno, entered the church with her 7-year-old son who remains in a critical condition.
And now questions are being asked of police after five women who lived near the shooter in Conroe, Texas, 50 miles north of the Houston megachurch, said the shooter tormented the neighbourhood over the last four years.
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Worshippers fled the scene after the shooting (FOX)"Four years I’ve been through hell. I have reported this, reported this, reported this, and it’s gone on deaf ears," next-door neighbour Jill told Fox 26 Houston. "I’ve had psychological officers up here. Since they won’t answer their door, they won’t do anything: ‘Until she hurts you, there’s nothing we can do.’ So, everybody keeps saying on all these big news stations, ‘If you see something, say something.’ That’s bulls---. Because I’ve been through it. I’ve talked to everybody. I’ve probably called every one of your news stations trying to get someone to take this on."
"No one would do anything. Nobody would call me back. And yet everyone’s still on these stations saying, ‘See something, say something.’ Nobody should have died. Nobody should have been hurt. This should have been handled years ago. And here we are again," Jill added.
The shooter entered the church with their son (TIktok)"I knew it was only a matter of time before she did something," said another neighbour, Linda Giutta. "We did something, we said something."
Walli Carranza, Moreno’s former mother-in-law, said in court filings that she long tried to alert authorities about the danger her ex-daughter-in-law posed but that authorities failed to take action.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner did not say whether the AR-15 was purchased retail, which would have required a background check if bought from a federally licensed firearms dealer, or a private sale, which would not. Texas requires no license to carry a rifle or handgun in public. Police added that Moreno also carried a .22 caliber rifle that she did not fire during the shooting.
Police received reports of an active shooter on Sunday morning (Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)“We’re not people standing up here against (Second Amendment) rights, but people who are suffering from mental illness, criminals … we’re looking at that,” Finner said.
Moreno’s rap sheet included charges for forging an £80 bill, a 2009 assault conviction for kicking a detention officer — which resulted in a 180-day county jail sentence — and a 2022 misdemeanour count for unlawfully carrying a weapon.
In a guilty plea to the 2022 misdemeanour count in nearby Fort Bend County, Moreno surrendered a pistol and a rifle that was found during a traffic stop. The weapons were destroyed as part of the plea agreement.
Wesley Wittig, a Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office prosecutor, said Moreno’s mental health history did not come up in the case, but noted there isn’t a comprehensive mental health tracking system to flag such issues.
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“Systems only document what’s already happened. While that could result in some prevention, the real issue is probably deeper than that because it’s people and just tracking stuff doesn’t fix people,” Wittig said. “Without having a serious sit down with all the potential issues and problems and paths forward, we’re probably not going to have a comprehensive answer any time soon.”
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