CONROE, Texas — Amid a documented history of criminal activity and mental health struggles, the woman who opened fire at Joel Osteen’s Houston megachurch with her son in tow appeared to have no difficulties in one area: buying guns.
In the attack Sunday, Genesse Moreno used an AR-15-style rifle that was purchased legally in December, officials said. She was also armed with a .22-caliber rifle. But court records suggest Moreno, 36, had owned at least four other firearms that had been confiscated over the past four years.
Two weapons were taken in separate incidents in Colorado and Texas, according to Moreno’s ex-mother-in-law, and two more were seized and destroyed after an arrest in 2022 outside Houston, prosecutors said. Her gun ownership was also detailed by her neighbors in the Houston suburb of Conroe, who claimed she harassed and threatened them over the years.
How exactly Moreno, 36, obtained the rifles she had Sunday and why she targeted the celebrity pastor’s Lakewood Church remain under investigation. She was killed in an exchange of gunfire with two off-duty law enforcement officers, while her 7-year-old son and a man were injured, Houston police said.
The man was released from the hospital with a leg injury, investigators said.
Moreno’s ex-mother-in-law, Walli Carranza, said Thursday on Facebook that her grandson, who remains in critical condition after he was shot in the head, “has to fight for life again.” The boy, who was born prematurely at about 24 weeks, had two operations in less than 24 hours, and his brain activity remains uncertain, she said.
“What is the excuse for those who knew and did nothing,” Carranza wrote about Moreno’s ability to obtain weapons, “and for legislators who refuse to allow red flag laws but do allow anyone to buy an assault weapon?”
The word “Palestine” was written on the assault-style rifle Moreno used, authorities said. She also made several statements during the incident, which unfolded between…
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