An interview with the gunman’s ex-mother-in-law surfaced recently, in which she called the murderous attack at the Lakewood Church foreseeable and avoidable. Moreno reportedly had criminal and mental health records.
Genesse Ivonne Moreno (36) entered Lakewood Church, reportedly carrying a bag and wore a trench coat. Moreno, who went by both female and male identities, brought her seven-year-old son to the church and opened fire.
The Hartford Institute for Religion Research reports that with an average of 45,000 weekly attendees, Lakewood Church ranks as the third-largest megachurch in the United States.
Authorities shot and killed her at the church. Her critically wounded 7-year-old son was also shot and in critical condition.
The ex-mother-in-law claimed in a court document that Moreno was mentally unstable and that the child was mistreated and abused as she sought to be declared conservator of Moreno’s son. Carranza said that Moreno was authorized to carry firearms, suffered from schizophrenia, and did not consistently take her medication.
Carranza went to child protective services and the Lakewood Church for aid because she felt the system ignored her family’s plight, even though they knew about Moreno.
Two persons were injured in the crossfire during Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church shooting between services.
A disagreement involving Moreno and her ex-husband’s Jewish family may have prompted the shooting,
Moreno was accused by her ex-husband in 2021 of attacking him violently and chasing him out of the home with knives. He also said that Moreno kept quiet about the birth of their son until a month later, and she told the hospital that the ex-husband was deceased. Her first trial in Harris County placed her in detention, but a second hearing in Montgomery County reversed the punishment.
Antisemitic literature was discovered during a search of Moreno’s (also known as Jeffery Escalante-Moreno and Jeffery Escalante) Conroe, Texas, home.
Records show that in 2009, Moreno was sentenced to 180 days in prison for attacking a corrections officer. He faced six separate criminal charges between 2005 and 2011.
According to her neighbors, Moreno displayed gang symbols and swastikas, pointed a rifle at her neighbors, and occasionally menaced neighbors who were walking to the park. They say Moreno falsely reported paranoid and false claims about the neighbors to authorities.
The neighbors said local government and law police had declined to do anything substantial in response to their allegations.
