#Lakewood church shooting

[nervoustragedyluminary]

Cw mass shooting, venting

Cis people will see a cis woman who committed a mass killing's previous arrest records listing her as "female" (knowing how hard those docs are to change and update for trans ppl ) hear police referring to her as "the biological mother of the child" and still clutch at straws to claim that her use of false identities for fraud in the past including "male names" means that she's OBVIOUSLY a trans woman...

Like do cis people not understand that fraudsters use a variety of names often of different genders for their crimes and something being listed as an alias doesn't automatically mean it's a legal name or a deadname?

Meanwhile there's other people going "oh so it's a ftm then lol trans men trying to be men ban testosterone "....

Like no this was a cisgender woman with a history of mental health issues, fraud and antisemitism who used her own child as a human shield while doing a mass shooting while trying to claim her crime was pro Palestine like many antisemites have been doing

like ffs people you think police of all people would call a trans woman "the biological mother"? 🤦 I swear if they just used the word 'cis' this bullshit wouldn't be as widespread as it is.

The whole "she used these aliases but identified as female" didn't clear anything up because chuds hear "identified as" & automatically assume that means the person is trans

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Li Zhou at Vox:

Following a Sunday shooting at a Houston megachurch that wounded two people, conservatives have seized on aspects of the alleged perpetrator’s identity — and misinformation about it — to further their attacks on trans people and immigrants. Police have disclosed that the shooter previously used male and female names as aliases, while noting that she consistently identified as female. Additionally, police said that she was the biological mother of a child who was seriously injured in the shooting. They also revealed that she had a label that read “Palestine” on the gun that was used, and had produced antisemitic writings that officials think could be related to a familial dispute. Thus far, law enforcement is still working to establish a motive, but the reports of aliases have already led to incorrect claims that the shooter was a trans woman and that this aspect of her identity was tied to the attack.

Some on the right — including lawmakers and commentators — have amplified those claims, using them to suggest this act of violence was an example of the threat they claim trans people pose. Certain conservatives also highlighted the shooter’s background as an immigrant from El Salvador and used this information to attack migrants. In addition to advancing their culture war messaging, focusing on the shooter’s identity arguably helped Republicans divert attention from the issue of gun control and the need for more firearm regulations in the wake of another frightening shooting. It’s a response that’s similar to the conservative reaction to a 2023 school shooting in Nashville, when prominent GOP pundits also used the shooter’s transgender identity to reiterate false claims about how trans people are dangerous. And it’s one that reveals how this is becoming a more common tool in the GOP’s messaging playbook.

For example, conservative commentator Benny Johnson linked the Lakewood shooting with the Nashville shooting and another shooting in Denver, where the perpetrators were transgender. Johnson claimed that these incidents were evidence that “the modern LGBTQIA+ movement is radicalizing activists into terrorists.”

After any mass shooting, it’s worth asking questions about how it happened and how different political movements or policy choices could have contributed. But given the lack of information about the shooter’s motive or general views — and the outright factual inaccuracies about her — this response from the right appears to be simply capitalizing on this tragedy to advance their political aims. The GOP reaction also comes as Republicans have pushed a swath of hardline anti-trans policies and anti-immigrant policies both at the federal level and in states across the country. Implicitly, their statements suggest that violence like the Houston shooting proves why such harsh policies are justified.

[...]

The right is using the shooter’s identity to make political attacks

In recent months, Republicans nationally and locally have launched rhetorical and policy attacks against trans people and immigrants, with this shooting marking their latest effort to continue them. As Vox’s Nicole Narea and Fabiola Cineas have reported, anti-trans attacks across the country have centered on treating trans people as a threat to women’s sports and girls’ locker rooms, and on treating medical care as a threat to trans kids. At least 19 states across the country have enacted laws restricting kids’ access to gender-affirming care.

Republicans have also been focused on attacking migrants and describing them as part of an “invasion” of the United States, arguing that unchecked immigration will result in more criminals and gang members entering the country and abusing public services. Similarly, as both Republicans and Democrats have supported Israel’s military offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack, there’s also been pushback toward people who support Palestinian rights, including congressional rebukes. By targeting these groups, Republicans have sought to capitalize on people’s fears of trans people and migrants, and to suggest that the GOP’s policies are aimed at protecting their voters from these groups and their actions. In citing some of the Houston shooter’s characteristics, conservatives sought to point to her as a concrete example of the dangers their policies are purportedly seeking to shield people from.

In doing so, many were pointed in sharing the supposed details of the shooter’s background, offering inaccurate posts like Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-TX) on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Church shooter was a migrant woman who apparently identifies as a man and had a ‘Palestine’ sticker on the rifle.” Commentators like Johnson and the team behind the conservative social media account @LibsofTikTok also claimed that the shooter was transgender and emphasized that she was an immigrant from El Salvador. As police clarified, the shooter in the Lakewood Church case is not trans. Some conservative media outlets, including Fox News, altered their framing of the shooting in response to this announcement, though others seem determined to emphasize this point as a way of amplifying their critiques of trans people and the other groups the shooter actually belonged to.

Ghoulish right-wingers have used the Lakewood Church shooting in Houston, Texas to push anti-trans, anti-immigrant, and anti-Palestinian tropes, such as falsely painting trans people as "dangerous" and "violent".

The vast majority of mast shootings has been done by cisgender men.

See Also:

Vice News: The Far Right Is Spreading Misinformation Claiming the Lakewood Church Shooter Was Trans

MMFA: Media spread false reports church shooter was a trans woman, furthering moral panic

[wakingthefury]

ABC News reports "Free Palestine" was written on the long rifle belonging to a man dressed as a woman who opened fire at the Lakewood Church in Houston, according to a law-enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

You're on the wrong side, handlers. And you'll find out the hard way when Jesus comes to clean house.

But hey, play the odds.

[coachtfd]

Go to school, you might become a mass shooting victim.

Go to work, you might become a mass shooting victim.

Go to a concert…

Go to worship…

Go to a movie…

Go to the store…

Go to a Super Bowl parade…

We’re running out of places.

[memenewsdotcom]

Lakewood Church shooting

[socialjusticeinamerica]

2 parishioners brought guns to mass. A child was hit in the crossfire and remains in critical condition. More senseless gun violence from a failed third world red state.

[sexhaver]

kind of burying the lede that the shooter brought a 7yo child with her who was shot and is in critical condition

[beardedmrbean]

“Antisemitic writings” were found in a search of items belonging to the shooter who opened fire Sunday afternoon at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, according to law enforcement.

The woman, identified as 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno, was carrying an assault-style rifle with the word “Palestine” written on it, according to two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter.

A motive is still not clear, but police said they believe Moreno acted alone. A dispute between Moreno and her ex-husband’s family, some of whom are Jewish, may be related to the shooting, Houston Police Commander Chris Hassig said in a news briefing Monday.

The shooter also made several statements during the course of the incident, but the officials declined to describe them. Law enforcement officials added that Moreno previously went by multiple aliases, including using both male and female names.

Moreno also brought her 7-year-old son with her to the church, the officials said. During the incident, the shooter stated she had a bomb, but a search turned up no explosive devices, officials said.

Preliminary tests done of chemicals found at the scene concluded that the materials did not pose any risk, Houston Fire Department Chief Sam Peña said at the Monday news briefing.

“The products on their own are benign, and they’re common products that we would see in other applications,” Peña said.

Law enforcement records show the shooter had at least six arrests since 2005, including unlawful carrying of a weapon, which she pleaded guilty to; evading arrest; and assault on a public official, which was pleaded to a lesser charge.   

Moreno has a documented mental health history and was placed under an emergency detention order by Houston police in 2016, Hassig said.

Maria Scott, who lived four doors from Moreno in the city of Conroe, roughly 40 miles north of Houston, said she did not know her well, but “people talked about her because she was wreaking havoc.”

She said a couple of years ago Moreno knocked on her door at 7 a.m. “insisting I go get my dogs out of her mother’s yard,” said Scott, 57. “She was just very stern and very, very angry for someone at 7 a.m.”

Scott said she heard from talk in the neighborhood that Moreno carried a firearm.

Another neighbor, Linda Giutta, wrote on Facebook that she and others from the neighborhood had raised concerns about Moreno with local law enforcement and the city council.

"No one could offer any kind of help," Giutta said in the post. "We are told to see something and say something but nothing gets done until it is too late."

Neither the police department nor Conroe's five council members immediately responded to requests for comment.

Police have publicly stated that two off-duty officers at the church returned fire, striking the shooter and killing her at about 1:50 p.m. Her son was also struck in the head during the incident and was in critical condition.

Police Chief Troy Finner said at a news conference Monday that the 7-year-old boy is “fighting for his life.” Police previously said the boy was 5 years old.

Another person who was injured, a 57-year-old man, was released from the hospital, Finner added.

He added that one of the off-duty officers is an agent with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and the other is a Houston police officer.

Officials are investigating a wide range of possible motives given the writing on the weapon, but cannot yet conclusively say what led to the shooting. They have not ruled out terrorism or hate crime-related motives.

The shooting happened between services, as people were arriving for Spanish service, Osteen said. About 45,000 people attend services there every week, making it one of the largest megachurches in the country.

Osteen said that he was “in a fog” after the violence and that he was keeping the injured in his prayers.

“We don’t understand why all these things happen,” the pastor told reporters Sunday. “But we know God’s in control.”

In a subsequent statement on Facebook, Osteen urged his congregation to lean on their faith to cope with the anguish.

“Our community is devastated by today’s events and grateful for the swift actions of law enforcement,” he said. “Together, we will rise above this tragedy and stand firm in our commitment to love and support one another.”

[menalez]

A 'woman' started shooting at a church in Texas yesterday and thankfully 'she' was the only person who died. Well today it comes out that the shooter was a tim! This fucker brought a 5 year old with him to commit a mass-shooting! Not our crimes

it seems she is not trans and this was just some conspiracy theory. she was very mentally ill tho

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Walli Carranza, a Jewish rabbi and former mother-in-law of late suspected Lakewood Church shooter Genesse Ivonne Moreno, said she worshiped at the megachurch, and news first broke about Sunday’s shooting, she had a suspicion that her former daughter-in-law was involved…

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Daniel Villarreal at LGBTQ Nation:

Right-wingers are falsely claiming that a transgender woman conducted a Sunday shooting at the Houston megachurch of homophobic celebrity pastor Joel Osteen, even though local police have definitively said that she wasn’t trans. The right-wing claims originate from reports that the 36-year-old shooter, Genesse Ivonne Moreno, also used the male alias Jeffrey Escalante in the past, The Houston Chronicle reported. Right-wingers have increasingly blamed public shootings on the “mentally ill” trans identities of the shooters. “She utilized both male and female names but, through all of our investigation to this point — talking with individuals, interviews, documents — Houston Police Department reports she has been identified this entire time as female: she/her,” a Houston police officer said in a recent public briefing posted on X.

Two off-duty officers shot Moreno dead shortly after she entered the church with an assault rifle and a 5-year-old child who was hospitalized in critical condition after being hit by gunfire. Moreno’s rifle reportedly had a sticker that said “Palestine” on it, though police are still investigating the possible motive behind her attack. Police say she had a long record of mental illness and prior arrests dating back to 2005 that include assault, forgery, marijuana possession, theft, evading, and unlawful carrying of a weapon. Despite police saying that the shooter wasn’t trans, far-right X accounts like anti-LGBTQ+ extremist Chaya Raichik, who goes by Libs of TikTok, have falsely told their social media followers that the shooter was trans. In the past, Raichik also misidentified the May 2022 Uvalde school shooter as trans — the shooter was not trans.

“The trans terrorist who shot up a Texas Church was mentally ill,” Raichik wrote in her misleading post. “What kind of hormones and drugs was she on? … Leftists ‘affirm’ gender dysphoria rather than treat the root cause which is mental illness.” While Raichik’s post has been reshared nearly 1,000 times on X by the time of this article’s publication, Raichik is not a mental health expert or medical professional. Gender dysphoria is not caused by mental illness — scientists suspect it is caused by a variety of genetic, hormonal, natal, cultural, and environmental factors, according to medical experts at Mt. Sinai Hospital. Nonetheless, numerous right-wing accounts on Twitter have repeated the claim, calling Moreno a “trans terrorist” and adding “our government protects lunatics like this.” Those spreading the false claim include far-right troll Jack Posobiec, the promoter of the anti-gay #Pizzgate conspiracy theory that eventually morphed into QAnon, whose believers regularly accuse gay politicians and allies of sexually abusing kids.

Right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ demagogues jumped to conclusions to falsely claim a trans woman conducted a shooting at the Joel Osteen-pastored Lakewood Church on Sunday.

Turns out the shooter wasn't a trans woman, but a cisgender woman.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: Marjorie Taylor Greene falsely calls church shooter “a trans from El Salvador”

The Advocate: Fox News and GOP politicians falsely claim Lakewood Church shooter was transgender

MMFA: Media spread false reports church shooter was a trans woman, furthering moral panic

[wakingthefury]

Houston Authorities Asked Whether Lakewood Church Shooting Is Being Cons...

The bigger question is: Who is setting up these shootings, how are they doing it, and what is the political end game?

[never-wednesday]

If I see any of you motherfuckers being shitty about the shooting at Lakewood Church in Houston because it's a church lead by one of the world's biggest dickheads I am going to RIP YOU APART WITH MY TEETH. I was out getting groceries and passed it while it was still fucking happening. It's going to affect the whole city. It was like 10min away from my home. Don't poke at an open wound like that.

[1984wemet]

The Unheard Cry A Tale of Systemic Fail 2024 02 15

Church Shooting Texas

Walli Carranza discusses the mental health struggles that her former daughter-in-law, Genesse Moreno, dealt with before she opened fire at a megachurch earlier in the week, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024, in Houston. Carranza says she believes that systemic failures as well as lax gun laws ultimately led to Sunday's shooting at the church.

HOUSTON (AP) — The former mother-in-law of the woman who opened fire at a Houston megachurch tried for years to alert authorities and others, including church staff, about her ex-daughter-in-law’s mental health struggles, she said Wednesday. But Walli Carranza said nothing came of her actions.

Carranza said she believes systemic failures as well as lax gun laws ultimately led to Sunday’s shooting at celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in which Genesse Moreno entered the church with her 7-year-old son and opened fire in a hallway. Two people were wounded in the shooting, including Moreno's son, who was shot in the head. Moreno was gunned down by security officers she exchanged gunfire with.

“You can’t put responsibility on the mind when the mind is so very ill. A healthy mother would never bring her child into a situation like this. That’s not mental health. So sometimes we don’t have to find a guilty party or place blame. We can just say some systems failed,” Carranza told The Associated Press in an interview.

Carranza said her grandson Samuel remained in critical condition, but that he was doing better. Various questions about the shooting remained unanswered on Wednesday, Texas also lacks a so-called “red flag” law, which generally allows law enforcement or family members to ask a judge to order the seizure or surrender of guns from someone who is deemed dangerous, often because of mental health concerns or threats of violence, including Moreno’s motive and details about how she obtained the AR-style rifle she used.