Video shows Lakewood Church shooter Genesse Moreno carrying a trench coat outside her car with the vehicle backed into the garage hours before opening fire at the house of worship.
On Sunday, the 36-year-old woman went to Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston armed with two rifles and dressed in a trench coat with her 7-year-old son Samuel at her side and began shooting.
Chilling images obtained by KTRK shows Moreno outside her home in Conroe, Texas, hours before she untied herself.
The video shows the shooter wearing black pants and a tank top walking around his car with a trench coat hanging from his arm.
Moreno backed his car near the garage and hung a tarp that blocks the view of everything entering or leaving the vehicle.
Video shows Lakewood Church shooter Genesse Moreno carrying a trench coat outside her car hours before the shooting.
Moreno backed his car near the garage and hung a tarp that blocks the view of everything entering or leaving the vehicle.
On Sunday, the 36-year-old woman (pictured in 2022) went to Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston armed with two rifles and dressed in a trench coat with her 7-year-old son Samuel by her side.
The video shows the shooter wearing black pants and a tank top walking around his car with a trench coat hanging over his arm.
Immediately after she began shooting, two off-duty police officers working as security at Lakewood Church shot and killed her.
Her seven-year-old son remains in hospital clinging to life after his mother took him with her to commit an attack, putting him in the line of fire of the off-duty police officers who killed her.
It is still unclear who exactly shot the boy: whether it was his mother or the two men who intervened to kill her.
He remains in hospital with a grim prognosis. Her paternal grandmother, Walli Carranza, who lives in Mexico, has flown to be at her bedside.
Through a family spokesperson, she told DailyMail.com today how she and her son have spent the last four years trying to gain custody of Sam.
“He wanted custody because he didn’t think she was capable of raising him,” described her longtime friend Connie Eicher.
‘First of all, she was mentally ill. They never knew when she would be good and when she wouldn’t.
Moreno had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and Munchausen by proxy.
Eicher said Moreno used Sam as a “bargaining chip” and disappeared whenever her ex-husband, Enrique Alberto Carranza, tried to see him.
Immediately after she began shooting, two off-duty police officers working as security at Lakewood Church shot and killed her. Pictured: A boy crying on the phone leaving the church during the shooting.
Moreno’s son was shot in the melee. It is still unclear who exactly shot the boy. Pictured: Crowds leaving the church during the shooting.
Moreno’s 7-year-old son Samuel (right) remains in the hospital fighting for his life after he was shot in the head during the rampage.
Carranza told KTRK: ‘He threatened my son’s life and my grandson’s life, and he put my grandson in danger for seven years, not just now. But underneath all that was a woman who just needed treatment.”
It is unclear how he was able to legally purchase the AR-15 he used in the shooting, or why he was allowed to retain custody of the child.
Texas Child Protective Services has not yet responded to DailyMail.com’s questions about the case.
On Facebook, Carranza said he blames the state of Texas for his injury.
‘No one will ever be able to blame a police officer doing his legitimate duty to save lives, even if he is found responsible for shooting my grandson.
‘The blame lies with child protective services in Montgomery County and Harris County who refused to take custody of a woman with a known mental illness who was not being treated and the state of Texas for not having strong laws alert that would have prevented it. of owning or possessing a weapon.
Moreno used several names, including Jeffery Escalante. He gave that name to police during his previous run-ins with police. Moreno was born in the Middle East and “ranted” against Jews.
“Although my former daughter-in-law raged against Israel and Jews yesterday in a pro-Palestinian speech, this has nothing to do with Judaism or Islam,” her mother-in-law said.
Moreno had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and Munchausen by proxy. It is unclear how he was able to legally purchase the AR-15 he used in the shooting.
Moreno was previously arrested on charges of assault, weapons, marijuana possession and forgery.
Moreno seen in 2000
At some point, his family moved to El Salvador before moving to the Houston area.
Moreno’s mother, who was his only support, left the city shortly before the shooting.
Eicher believes Moreno may have been feeling desperate, prompting her to go to the church her mother was a member of: Lakewood.
“She could have shot the entire congregation if they hadn’t stopped her,” Eicher added.
Investigators also found anti-Semitic writing on Moreno’s car after the shooting. One of the weapons he had had a sticker that said “Palestine.”
“I wasn’t surprised to hear that there had been anti-Semitic rants because they were trying to take the baby away,” the rabbi’s friend said.
‘I think she was using him as a shield. I think she thought that as long as she had him she would be protected.
The shooting occurred between services at the megachurch that is regularly attended by 45,000 people each week, making it the third-largest megachurch in the United States, according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Osteen’s televised sermons reach about 100 countries.
Osteen said the shooting could have been much worse if it had occurred during the larger 11 a.m. service.
It was unclear where Osteen was at the time, but he joined police at a later news conference and said the church is “devastated.”
He added that the shooting could have been much worse if it had occurred during the larger 11 a.m. service.
He added that he would pray for the victims and for the woman who shot him and their families.
“We will stay strong and continue to move forward,” Osteen said after officials spoke.
‘There are forces of evil, but the forces that are for us, the forces of God, are stronger than that. So let’s move forward strong and righteous, you know, doing what God called us to do: lift people up and give hope to the world.’