HOUSTON (AP) — The young boy who was critically injured in a shooting at a Texas megachurch on Sunday was the son of the shooter, authorities said Monday.
The young boy who was critically injured in a shooting at a Texas megachurch on Sunday was the son of the shooter, authorities said Monday.
Police identified the shooter as 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno, and said at a news conference that Moreno had a history of mental illness, including being placed under emergency detention in 2016.
The boy, who authorities described as a 7-year-old, remained in critical condition Monday with a gunshot wound to the head. He had been described as a 5-year-old on Sunday.
A motive for the attack that sent worshippers rushing for safety in between busy services at celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church remains unclear.
Moreno was killed after pointing the weapon at the security officers, authorities said.
In addition to the boy, a man in his 50s was also injured in the shooting, according to authorities.
Lakewood is regularly attended by 45,000 people weekly, making it the third-largest megachurch in the U.S., according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
Osteen said the violence could have been worse if the shooting had happened during the earlier and larger late Sunday morning service.
