The mother-in-law of Lakewood Church shooter Genesse Moreno blamed the state of Texas and Montgomery County Child Protective Services for the attack, calling it a “completely preventable horror.”
In a Facebook post, Rabbi Walli Carranza said Moreno, 36, had exhibited aggressive behavior and suffered from mental illness, yet she was able to purchase an AR-15 rifle without question.
“The fault lies in child protective services of Montgomery County and Harris County that refused to remove custody from a woman with known mental illness that was not being treated and with the state of Texas for not having strong red flag laws that would have prevented her from owning or possessing a gun,” Carranza said.
Last Sunday, Moreno walked into celebrity pastor Joe Osteen’s Lakewood Church with her 7-year-old son and began shooting. She was killed after exchanging gunfire with two off-duty officers. Another 57-year-old man was wounded.
Moreno’s son was critically injured after being shot in the head, but it is still unclear who shot him. Carranza said the boy suffered a brain injury and was “clinging to life” at Texas Children’s Hospital.
According to the Associated Press, Moreno had a criminal record for counterfeiting a $100 bill, a 2009 assault conviction for kicking a detention officer, and a 2022 misdemeanor for unlawfully carrying a weapon. In pleading guilty to that last charge, Moreno surrendered a handgun and a rifle found during a traffic stop.
Carranza said she had long tried to alert authorities that Moreno was potentially dangerous.
In Moreno’s 2022 divorce papers, Carranza alleged that Moreno had a history of threatening people with guns and that she kept them carelessly around her son.
In January 2022, Carranza allegedly saw an unlocked gun in her grandson’s diaper bag and claimed that Moreno threatened to shoot her ex-husband while her son slept in the backseat of their car.
Carranza said she alerted Child Protective Services, but they said they couldn’t do anything unless Moreno shot someone.
Moreno also suffered from mental illness and was on medication for schizophrenia. Carranza said she was a very sweet and loving woman when she was on medication.
Currently, the state does not require a license to carry a rifle or handgun in public, and lawmakers have long resisted passing red flag laws that would order the seizure or surrender of guns from someone with a history of violence or mental illness.
In Texas, major shootings have involved legally obtained guns by people with histories of violence and mental illness. The gunman who killed 26 people and wounded 20 others in the 2017 Sutherland Springs shooting also obtained that firearm legally, and had a prior conviction for domestic violence assault.
The man who shot and killed six people in a rampage from San Antonio through Austin also had a history of domestic violence and mental health problems.
For more information about mass shootings in Texas, visit our Gun Violence Watch website.
