Police released the bodycam footage from the Lakewood Church shooting that happened on February 11th in Houston. The video brings a lot of lessons home for those looking at it analytically.
The attacker, reportedly a transgendered Muslim woman named Genesse Moreno, used a rifle with a “Free Palestine” message written on it. By the way, Houston PD spent a whole day ascertaining the proper pronouns for the would-be mass murderer.
For the record, the pronouns are now was/were, officially.
Also for the record, the woman was an illegal alien who had a bunch of criminal cases since coming to America from Central America. And she reportedly voted in 2020.
What’s more, the video shows that the church security team needed a lot more training. Officer Moreno (same name as the attacker, but unrelated) didn’t exactly aggressively engage the shooter. To the contrary, he seemed to hide. He couldn’t even hold his gun properly, and he didn’t act as though he knew how to use barricade tactics to successfully engage a suspect.
Some of the other security people exercised less than sound tactics. Ultimately, by sheer numbers and some luck they prevailed in putting down the killer. It could have been a lot worse though.
At the same time, with better training and tactics, they might have put the lunatic down sooner before her kid took a round to the head.
BREAKING: Houston police have released the body-worn camera footage of the Texas megachurch shooting where an armed Hispanic woman with pro-Palestine beliefs attempted a mass murder. pic.twitter.com/XYemU4nIxP
— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) February 26, 2024
And YouTube:
The Houston Police Department on Monday released long-awaited video footage of the Lakewood Church shooting, which left the shooter dead and two people wounded, including the shooter’s 7-year-old son.
The 25-minute-long video includes segments of security footage and three separate bodycam recordings and shows what happened before and after 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno opened fire inside the west hallways of Lakewood Church on Feb. 11.
The video begins with silent security footage and shows Moreno — who is wearing a beige trench coat concealing an AR-15 and a backpack containing a second rifle — pulling up to the church in a white SUV and entering the west side of the building with her son, 7-year-old Samuel Carranza. After entering the building, Moreno and her son walk off-screen for a few moments before people begin running in the opposite direction, presumably after Moreno begins to open fire.
Two off-duty officers who were working security — a Houston police officer and a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agent — returned fire. During the standoff, Moreno can be heard telling the officers to “stop shooting,” and that she has a bomb in her bag.
“I will blow up the whole f-king place,” she yells. “Stand down, I have a bomb.”
At some point during the shooting, Moreno’s son was shot in the head. In the wake of the shooting, it’s been unclear whether the responding officers or Moreno herself was responsible for shooting her son as the ongoing investigation continues. However, during the newly-released video, Moreno can be heard yelling “you killed my son” and repeatedly asking the officers for help.
Throughout the shooting, officers can be heard telling Moreno to put the gun down. After repeatedly refusing, the TABC agent — who wasn’t wearing a body camera — opened fire and killed Moreno, police said.
Over the last two weeks, Carranza has undergone five brain surgeries and was still in critical condition as of Monday morning. According to his grandmother, the 7-year-old has been able to breathe on his own, but may need more surgeries. Additionally, a 57-year-old man was shot in the leg during the shooting and was released from the hospital shortly after.
“While we know there are unanswered questions, this is still an active investigation,” HPD Chief Troy Finner said in a statement posted to social media. “We will continue to work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to thoroughly examine all aspects of this incident.”
In the end, the church security team engaged and saved lives. Clearly it could have been handled better but all things considered, given the time and place of the attack, it could have ended much worse.
Good church security teams will look at that video with a critical eye and do some self-reflection about their skill sets. Hopefully they’ll go practice and seek out additional training opportunities. Because in a gunfight, you default to your level of training.
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