It’s been more than a month since Genesse Moreno opened fire at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, wounding one man and putting her own son in the crossfire before being shot down herself.
Since then, there have been conflicting reports and rumors about the incident, particularly surrounding the 36-year-old Moreno.
Now that the gun smoke and media frenzy have cleared, straight answers are a little easier to find.
Moreno’s Mental State
Moreno was clearly disturbed, with her ex-husband describing her as a “diagnosed schizophrenic” who was “irrational and unstable.”
“Because of my wife’s schizophrenia, she does not have the capacity to discern reality from fiction,” Enrique Carranza III wrote in a 2020 affidavit related to their divorce, according to ABC News.
Walli Carranza, Enrique’s mother, also confirmed her former daughter-in-law’s mental condition in an interview with KHOU-TV.
“She had a particular type of schizophrenia that caused her to become violent,” Carranza said. “She threatened her husband’s life, she threatened mine, she threatened to kill her own son.”
On and off medication, Carranza said, Moreno was a different person.
“She was a beautiful and fine young lady before, and then she stopped taking medication. And we asked for interventions for her many, many times. She was hospitalized many times, she was violent many times,” Carranza said.
The warning signs were so alarming that when Carranza heard about the Feb. 11 shooting, she suspected it may have been Moreno.
“There were red flags for six years, and we raised them, and we flew them high, and nothing was done,” Carranza said.
Did Moreno “Identify” as a Man?
In the past, Moreno had gone by the name “Jeffrey Escalante,” according to Texas Department of Public Safety records. ABC also reported that Moreno’s ex-husband referred to her in court documents as Jeffrey.
However, the DPS records list Moreno as female, and police confirmed at a Feb. 12 news conference that despite her male alias, she was indeed a woman.
The discrepancies have led some to speculate that Moreno “identified” as a man.
At the time of this writing, a Google search for “Lakewood shooter trans” results in this notification: “It looks like there aren’t many great matches for your search.” Below it, Google lists several leftist publications, such as Vice and Vox, criticizing right-wing “misinformation” about Moreno being transgender.
Searching for “Lakewood shooter gender” nets similar results.
Whether or not the establishment media and Big Tech run cover for trans shooters is a subject for a different article, but it remains unknown whether Moreno considered herself a man or simply went by a male name.
Was Moreno an Illegal Immigrant?
Moreno was born in El Salvador, according to DPS records, but it is unclear whether she was in the U.S. illegally. To make matters more confusing, despite being from El Salvador, both court and DPS records identify Moreno as white.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer on Moreno (under the name “Jeffrey Escalante”) in December 2010, according to the Harris County district clerk’s website.
ICE lodges detainers against those arrested on criminal charges who the agency “has probable cause to believe are removable non-citizens,” according to the ICE website. Detainers ask local law enforcement agencies to hold these “removable non-citizens” until ICE can take them into custody.
Non-citizens may be deported if convicted of certain crimes, even if present in the country legally.
Moreno’s 2010 detainer was lifted a month later, however.
Moreno’s mother-in-law confirmed her citizenship status in a 2020 affidavit.
“[My son] has been reticent to file the criminal charges against his wife; now his former wife because … she is not a US citizen,” Carranza wrote, according to ABC. “As she already has had criminal convictions, she would likely be deported if convicted.”
Despite her status as a non-citizen, rumors have emerged that Moreno was registered to vote in Montgomery County.
In fact, internet sleuths claimed that not only was Moreno a registered voter, but she even voted in the 2020 election.
Lakewood Church shooter, Genesse Ivonne Moreno aka Jeffrey Escalante Moreno, is in the US illegally & registered to vote in Montgomery County Texas and voted in the 2020 General Election. Don’t believe me? Look it up yourself, her birthday is 07/21/1987. https://t.co/fa8HkKBhWa pic.twitter.com/lRngHCDMV7
— goomba (@o____principe) February 13, 2024
GOP Data Center pic.twitter.com/CTWWKCYBzH
— Houston Conservative Forum (@houston_cf) February 13, 2024
However, searches for Moreno as well as for Jeffrey Escalante in Montgomery County’s voter registration database yield no results at the time of this writing.
How Did Moreno Acquire a Firearm?
Given her mental instability and criminal background, some wonder how Moreno could have been allowed to stay in the country, much less acquire a firearm.
She was a convicted felon and had been arrested at least six times since 2005, according to DPS records, including on charges of assaulting a police officer in 2009 and unlawfully carrying a weapon in 2022.
Houston police officials confirmed at a news conference that Moreno had legally purchased the AR-15 used in the Lakewood shooting in December.
One possibility is that Moreno purchased the rifle from a private seller. In Texas, unlicensed dealers are not required to initiate background checks on customers.
Why Did Moreno Target Lakewood Church?
Speculation abounds as to Moreno’s motive for attacking Lakewood. According to KHOU, Moreno once attended the megachurch.
One possibility is that her motivation was anti-Semitic.
Moreno had a “Palestine” sticker on the stock of her rifle, and police uncovered “anti-Semitic writings” during their investigation.
“We do believe that there was a familial dispute that has taken place between her … and her ex-husband’s family, and some of those individuals are Jewish,” said Chris Hassig of the Houston Police Department. “So we believe that might possibly be where all of this stems from.”
Moreno’s former mother-in-law is a rabbi.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, Moreno had a Telegram account that featured “terrorist propaganda” and anti-Semitic content.
She also used the account to share her plans to carry out an attack.
“ALLAH is willing, I will …. Jews to send my message to Walli Carranza. Don’t worry my MUSLIMS brothers I am [past] the threat phase. I’m in planning mode. Please don’t message me private trying to stop me,” Moreno wrote on Jan. 3.
“I call on all Muslim college people invite me to the next pro-Israel rally I will have two surprises in support of PALESTINE,” Moreno wrote in another Jan. 3 Telegram post.
If the motive for the shooting was indeed anti-Semitic, the question remains why Moreno chose to attack a Christian church rather than one of the synagogues in the area.
The Boy
During the exchange of gunfire with security officers, Moreno’s 7-year-old son — whom she had brought with her — was shot in the head.
It’s unclear who shot Samuel Carranza, according to Houston Public Media.
In a Feb. 14 Facebook post, Walli Carranza said her grandson had lost part of his frontal lobe, “a major part of what makes us who we are,” and had gone into cardiac arrest multiple times.
After Samuel underwent five brain surgeries, his grandmother reported that he was able to breathe on his own. On March 1, she said he was improving “in tiny steps.”
“People want a happy ending. There is none. Will he be able to have any semblance of a normal life? I have no idea,” Carranza said.
“The love sent is felt. The prayers are powerful.”
