Last weekend, a woman entered Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston and opened fire, injuring two in the process. But could it have been prevented? Neighbors of the alleged shooter say they have been raising the alarm about her for months.
Six women who live in the neighborhood of Conroe reported having run-ins with the suspect, Genesse Ivonne Moreno, who left frightened after she harassed, targeted, threatened, and brandished firearms at them outside their homes in the Houston suburb.
On Monday afternoon, the women held a press conference in the driveway of a home, sharing more on their interactions with Moreno and the officials who failed to respond to their reports of her actions.
“No one should have died. No one should have been hurt. This should have been handled years ago, and here we are again,” Jill, the president of the neighborhood association, shared at the press conference.
Another woman, identified as Heather, claimed Moreno threatened her on July 4, 2022, with a handgun, while another resident, Judy Keith, said Moreno tried to hit her twice while they passed each other out on walks in the neighborhood.
The Conroe Police Department has responded to the comments from the women, saying Tuesday that it had reviewed the way calls about Moreno were handled.
“The review revealed that Conroe Police personnel handled the calls appropriately and according to law,” police said in a statement. “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.”
An investigation into the shooting on Sunday found that Moreno entered the church with her 7-year-old son and opened fire in between afternoon services at the megachurch.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said during a press conference that the young boy was one of those injured in the shooting and he is “fighting for his life.”
A 57-year-old man was also struck in the shooting but has since been released from the hospital.
The shooting was stopped when Moreno was fatally shot by two off-duty law enforcement officers working security at the church, who returned fire when the shooting began.
Police also shared that Moreno had “Free Palestine” written on her assault-type rifle that she used in the shooting.
The women shared that things got so bad in the neighborhood that five of them spent a day five months ago talking with local officials and law enforcement, trying to have something done, according to Linda Giutta, who lives in the neighborhood.
Eventually, a cease-and-desist order was issued.
“We cannot do anything more than what we did. We tried to stop this,” Giutta said. “We tried to help her. We tried to help us. We tried to help the public. Something needs to get done.”
The investigation into the shooting is still ongoing at this point.