New revelations have emerged about the Lakewood Church shooter and the abuse she may have subjected her 7-year-old son to — including using an unnecessary feeding tube just to get a government disability check, according to the boy's grandmother.
Genesse Moreno, 36, was shot and killed by police after she entered Joel Osteen's church in Houston on Sunday and opened fire, hitting a man in the leg.
Moreno wore a trench coat, armed with a rifle and had her son Sam in tow during the planned attack on the Texas megachurch.
Moreno's mother-in-law, Rabbi Walli Carranza, made the allegations as she is currently at Sam's side as he remains in the intensive care unit after he was shot in the head during the shooting.
“When he once suffocated, a feeding tube was placed in him, which was to be removed two weeks later. “It stayed there for years,” the rabbi explained.
Enrique Carranza and his son Sam smile in a photo shared by Carranza's mother in September 2022
The shooter was identified as Genesse Ivonne Moreno, 36, who previously went by the name Jeffrey and has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 2005. She will be seen in 2022
Sam's grandmother, Walli Carranza, is a rabbi and wasn't surprised by the anti-Semitic slurs police found in Moreno's car after the shooting
“As long as he received such additional food, she received money from social security. “We believe she kept him in this childlike state for financial reasons.”
Carranza added that Sam was a special needs child from birth, being born at 23 weeks, weighing less than a pound and spending the first seven months of his life in a neonatal intensive care unit.
“He had a very slim chance of survival and he survived,” the Jewish leader said.
“When he got out of there, he needed very intensive therapy for many, many years.”
But Carranza said Sam did not receive treatment for the effects of the premature birth, which left him with asthma and speech impediments.
After the shooting, police were seen outside Moreno's home in Conroe, Texas
Moreno was previously arrested for assault, weapons possession, marijuana possession and forgery
Genesse Ivonne Moreno – the 36-year-old Conroe woman who allegedly opened fire at Joel Osteen's megachurch in Houston on Sunday – regularly threatened neighbors with guns and had a hateful relationship with her son, according to reports from neighbors and court records
“Since the father was given temporary custody, the mother disappeared and hid and hid and hid him,” the grandmother said.
“There was therapy that was supposed to happen for a while, but then (Moreno) refused to take him to therapy because she had to wait 30 minutes to an hour. “It was all very tailored to her needs.”
Moreno was diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered from Munchausen by proxy – a mental disorder characterized by a caregiver's attention-seeking and seeking out of the people in his or her care.
Moreno also had a lengthy criminal record in the Lone Star State and frequently used pseudonyms, including one male: Jeffery Escalante. It's a name she often gave to police officers, arrest records show.
“Sam didn't receive the therapies he needed and was actually infantilized. “His mother held him like an infant.”
A harrowing video shows the moment worshipers at Joel Osteen's Lakewood church took cover as shots rang out in the Texas community
Moreno lived with her son in this $247,400 four-bedroom Conroe home after a highly contentious separation from the child's father, a registered sex offender
In a post on Instagram, Moreno showed off a photo of an assault weapon and asked her followers in the caption if anyone knew how to “clean an AR-15.”
Carranza claimed that Sam was unable to speak at all when he was three years old and only recently became verbal.
Between the rabbi and her son, Enrique Aleberto Carranza, they pushed to have the feeding tube removed and Sam's therapies resumed – by contacting child protective services.
“We asked Child Protective Services to enforce this, but they refused.” And that's what the custody was all about, getting him into therapy. As far as I know, she was allowed to homeschool a severely disabled child.”
contacted CPS in Texas and did not immediately receive a response from the agency.
The mother and son lived in a $247,400 four-bedroom home in Conroe that belonged to Moreno's mother.
Divorce records also revealed that she had a contentious split from the boy's father, a registered sex offender who filed for divorce in 2020.
The mother won custody of the child with “severe” special needs — which she “demonstrated,” according to CPS.[d] “no attachment to” and is referred to only as “the boy.”
Sam is showing signs of improvement although he is still unconscious and in critical condition, his grandmother said. She added that she had been told that if he survived he would likely suffer memory loss.
“I pray that Sam doesn't remember that time of terror for him,” she said of the shooting. “He doesn’t have to remember everything that happened before.”