Update - 4:45 pm Eastern: During a Monday afternoon press conference, Christopher Hassig, commander of the HPD homicide unit, addressed the confusion regarding the shooter's identity, specifically gender. Per Hassig: 

"Our shooter is identified by a driver's license as Genesse Moreno, 36 years old, Hispanic female. There are some discrepancies — we do have reports she used multiple aliases, including "Jeffrey Escalante," so she has 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. And so we are identifying her as Genesse Moreno, Hispanic female."

The child has been identified as Moreno's seven-year-old biological son. He sustained one gunshot wound to the head and is in critical condition.

Additionally, authorities provided some clarification regarding the reported writing/sticker on the weapon. 

Authorities stated that the buttstock of the AR-15 she wielded featured a sticker of the word "Palestine." Previous reports incorrectly stated the long gun featured the words "Free Palestine." Hassig stated "antisemitic writings" have been discovered in subsequent investigations into Genesse.

Authorities also provided some additional background that may point to a potential motive.

Hassig also stated the shooter had a history of mental health illness and was previously put under emergency detention orders by Houston police. Genesse appears to have legally purchased at least one of the guns used in the attack as recently as December. The commander stated the shooter may have been embroiled in a familial dispute with the family of an ex-husband.

"We do believe there was a familial dispute between her and her ex-husband's family, and some of those people are Jewish," Hassig said.

Original Story

Sunday, 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno, accompanied by a five-year-old child, walked into Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston and opened fire with an AR-15-style modern sporting rifle, wounding a 57-year-old man before being killed by security guards. The child was wounded and is hospitalized.

ALERT: Houston Police Confirm Shooter Dead, 2 Injured After Gunfire at Osteen Church During Service

A larger tragedy was avoided by Lakewood Church having armed security guards who were doing their job diligently and a plan for the possibility of an active shooter.

As the facts dripped out, it became evident that this shooting would be quickly memory-holed. The shooter was a "transwoman" whose real name was Jeffrey Escalante. Escalante was from El Salvador, but there is no word on his immigration status. 

Per law enforcement records, Moreno also had identified as Jeffery Escalante in the past, and had prior arrests for assault, forgery, marijuana possession, theft, evading, and unlawful carrying weapon

— Jeremy Rogalski (@JRogalskiKHOU) February 12, 2024

The AR-15 he carried had "Free Palestine" written on it. As one of my colleagues noted, someone with a rifle with "Free Palestine" scrawled on it using a child as a human shield is just about as on-brand as you can get.

As I've noted before, the trans movement has a very dark and violent undertone.

In the past four years, there has been a surge in the number of mass shootings carried out by transgender or related murderers. In addition to Hale, we have:

Colorado Springs, CO, nightclub shooting (Attorney: Suspected Colorado Mass Shooter Identifies as ‘Non-Binary’), November 2022, Anderson Aldrich (Nicholas Brink), “non-binary.”

Denver, CO, school shooting (Father of Colorado High School Shooting Suspect is an Illegal Immigrant Deported Twice, Charged with Very Serious Crimes), May 2019, Maya “Alec” McKinney, transgender female-to-male.

Aberdeen, MD, workplace shooting (Last Week There Was a Mass Shooting at a Maryland Industrial Park but No One Seems to Care), September 2018, Snochia Moseley, transgender female-to-male.

Three things come to mind. First, considering the number of people legitimately identifying as transgender — by that, I mean people who aren’t using transgender as a scam to see naked girls and women — is very small; they are disproportionately represented. Second, they are of the female-to-male variety. Third, the shootings run in tandem with the violent imagery and rhetoric used by transgenders and their supporters.

We need to wake up to what is going on. People already suffering from a mental disorder and who may be on a hormonal drug regimen are becoming radicalized and encouraged to use violence to address their grievances with the rest of the world. The political side of the transgender movement is not benign; that movement openly promotes violence, and until it is treated as the public safety threat that it is, we’d better get used to more Nashvilles.

READ: A Wyoming Democrat Encouraging Murder to Support 'Trans Rights' Reveals a Violent Political Movement

Any media interest that might have been generated from the AR-15 or Joel Osteen will be crushed by the stampede to avoid talking about violent transgender shooters and their connection to "Free Palestine."