This afternoon, during the Spanish-language service, a WOMAN walked into the building with a rifle, and was stopped (okay, killed) by two armed guards, WHO ALSO SHOT A FIVE-YEAR-OLD who may have come in with her. The child is in serious or critical condition, and another person who was in the crossfire is hospitalized.
Nobody so far has been identified; I have no use for Osteen or his false theology, but this is just a horrible tragedy.
I have to wonder if the fact that it was a Spanish-language service when she opened fire had anything to do with it. It’s still a tragedy either way, of course. Police Chief Troy Finner is quoted as saying "if law enforcement gunfire is responsible for striking the child, “I’m going to put that blame on her” for putting the boy in danger. I don’t know the setup, but unless the kid is in front of her, I’d hope it would be easy not to shoot him/her.
Possible, but it was near the beginning of the service. She reportedly just stepped in from the parking deck and started shooting. So, probably not related but who can really say at this point?
She also claimed to have a bomb in her car but no explosives were found. The cops spent the night at a house out in Conroe (one of the ex-urbs north of Houston) and reportedly took several boxes of evidence with them. No confirmation on whether or not that’s her house or what the connection is. And they haven’t released her name yet, either.
Interesting - just putting two things together from the CNN article:
The shooter used a legally purchased AR-15
Bolding Mine.
Moreno was put under an order for emotional detention in 2016 and she has a mental health history documented by Houston police. Records from the Texas Department of Public Safety show Moreno had a string of arrests for minor offenses over the last two decades, including possession of marijuana, an assault, illegal possession of a weapon, resisting arrest and a forgery charge.
Though the news hasn’t really reported it, it looks like her child was probably killed by the security guards. They’ve been clear from the beginning that the child’s death was entirely on Moreno (very much true if still tragic) but it’s a bit troubling how much they were massaging the public message the entire time.
This is true, but some of the earlier reporting made claims that Moreno was transgender before that got straightened out. Ain’t nobody come out of this covered in glory
The child is being reported as Moreno’s “biological child”. Last I heard (just a few minutes ago) the child is still alive and in critical care. I gather that she had the child at her side during this whole thing so not entirely surprising the kid got hit with a bullet.
Too early for confirmed details but it does should like Moreno’s life has been a mess for a number of years.
She’s dead now, so we’ll never really know what the hell she was thinking, will we?
Which takes away one tiny clue as to why this shit keeps happening, which is itself a clue as to how to prevent it from happening yet again.
I realize this is premature and we don’t have the full details yet, but part of me really wants to taunt the armed guards off-the-clock cops who took a bad situation and escalated it to the max.
Two (or more?) big strong Texas men couldn’t take away a rifle from a widdle-bitty woman who was towing a child along and presumably didn’t have full attention and both hands available?
Really. Couldn’t disarm her? She’s just so tough you hafta shoot first?
Hmph.
(That’s how you troll men in Texas, especially the ones who attend church fully armed. Lord’s House, my ass.)
Well, she was already firing the rifle. This wasn’t a case where she was threatening to do so and might have been safely disarmed. There were bullets (plural) already fired. They should have waited until she actually hit somebody?
And while the two were cops, they were doing their side job at the time as paid security guards for the church. Whether or not you think a church should have those or if such should be armed, they were doing the job they were paid for and expected to do.
There’s a valid debate about how somebody might have intervened in her life before now or how she might have been stopped before getting inside or how readily available guns are or how easily we allow just about anybody to get them, but I’m not going to criticize the response of the security guards after she started firing.
Not just the earliest. I’m astonished that even here on the Dope we’ll digest scanty reports and commence the indignant speculation immediately. We’ve become so addicted to our own outrage.
Where is the cite that they were paid security for the church?
I’m reading this:
Two off-duty law enforcement officers – a Houston police officer and an agent with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission – engaged and struck the woman
… on the (so far very initial) report.
I’ll hold off on more off-the-cuff emotional responses, but this one’s gonna be a shitshow all 'round.
Why would you think your response would taunt/troll them in any way? I suspect few would care that it’s a woman and that two off-duty cops needed a gun to take her down.
who was towing a child along and presumably didn’t have full attention and both hands available?