Joel Osteen church shooter threw Nazi salutes and waved guns and crossbows at neighbors

The woman who shot up Joel Osteen’s mega-church with an AR-style rifle used to intimidate neighbors by brandishing guns and crossbows while throwing Nazi salutes — and only referred to the young special-needs son she took with her on the attack as “the boy.”

Before the shocking attack on the Houston-area Lakewood Church Sunday, Genesse Ivonne Moreno, 36, had terrorized her neighborhood in Conroe, Texas — with police called multiple times to the home she shared with her mother and her 7-year-old son, according to neighbors.

“Her way of intimidation was to bring the gun cases in and out, crossbows,” one neighbor told Fox 26 .

“She’d come out, have her gun cases, do heil Hitler [salute], flip you off, call you the b-word, or something. It was something every day.”

Another neighbor claimed that Moreno even tried to run them over with her car.

Moreno, who had a documented history of mental illness, took her son to the shooting Sunday.

He was left fighting for life after being hit in the head as police shot and killed his mom.

Moreno shared the boy with her ex-husband, a registered sex offender — and demonstrated “no attachment to the child,” according to divorce records cited by the local station.

Instead of calling the 7-year-old by his name, Moreno referred to him as “the boy” and made “no eye contact with him,” the filings stated.

The woman, who had a lengthy rap sheet, used both male and female aliases but arrest and jail records show Moreno has always identified as female.

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Records in Harris County showed that Moreno, under the names Jeffery Escalante-Moreno or Jeffery Escalante, was charged in six criminal cases from 2005 to 2011 and in his divorce papers, her ex-husband even referred to Moreno by the name Jeffrey.

Charges against her ranged from forging a $100 bill, to stealing socks, hats and makeup, to assault for kicking a detention officer.

Her most recent run-in with the law before Sunday’s shooting occurred in 2022, she was found in possession of two guns during a traffic stop, reported ABC13 .

Moreno served two days in jail and her firearms were seized and destroyed.

In his divorce filings, the shooter’s husband Enrique Carranza wrote that he and Moreno met in 2015 when both worked at the Spaghetti Warehouse in Houston.

He claimed that his wife, whom he called Jeffrey, became abusive soon after they got married.

“Jeffrey is a diagnosed schizophrenic, so daily it was a new battle or fight in her realm,” the husband wrote.

Enrique Carranza also alleged that Moreno was a drug user and did not break her habit even after becoming pregnant.

He claimed their son was born prematurely with drugs in his system.

“I currently fear that my wife will harm my son because she knows that all I wanted my whole life was to be a father, and I will not allow hate to be taught to my son,” he wrote.

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Police and the FBI said they have not found a motive for Sunday’s shooting yet but were looking into a dispute involving Moreno and her ex-husband’s family.

Investigators found antisemitic writings by Moreno, Hassig said, noting her former in-laws are Jewish.

Moreno’s former mother-in-law, Rabbi Walli Carranza, told the station KHOU11 that her ex-daughter-in-law had “a particular kind of schizophrenia that caused her to become violent.”

“She threatened her husband, my own son, and we still couldn’t get intervention,” Carranza told the station after going through customs at Bush Intercontinental Airport upon her arrival from France.

Carranza, whose son Enrique is currently jailed in Florida for failing to register as a sex offender, argued that Sunday’s bloodshed was preventable – and that the legal system failed her family. .

‘We asked for help from CPS. … We asked for help from police and received it many times but she was still allowed to own guns,” the woman said.

Carranza said she believes her grandson, who was listed in critical condition, will survive.

“He is a fighter. He’s a small Carranza,” she said.

Moreno was said to have to legally purchased the AR-style rifle with the “Palestine” sticker on the buttstock used in the shooting in December. She also carried a .22 caliber rifle into the church, police said.

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Documents filed as part of Moreno’s divorce case claimed that Moreno had “a history of erratic paranoid, stalking behavior and was diagnosed as exhibiting Munchausen by proxy” — and that she stored a loaded gun in her then 3-year-old’s diaper bag.

Munchausen by proxy is a psychological disorder in which the patient tries to gain attention by seeking medical help for exaggerated or made-up symptoms of a child in their care.

In a rambling 2022 application for a protective order against her ex-mother-in-law, Moreno complained of being threatened and followed — and claimed to have had received texts from FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Carranza wrote in a separate court filing seeking to be named conservator of her grandson that Moreno was mentally ill and that her child was being neglected and abused.

Moreno entered Osteen’s Lakewood Church between services Sunday afternoon with her son in tow and opened fire from an AR-style rifle with a “Palestine” sticker affixed to it, officials said.

Two off-duty officers working security at the church — Houston cop Christopher Moreno, who is not related to the shooter, and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Agent Adrian Herrera — returned fire and fatally shot her.

The woman’s son took a bullet to the head during the exchange, according to the police.

Investigators do not yet know if the 7-year-old boy was accidentally shot by one of the off-duty officers.

But the boy’s grandmother preemptively came to the officers’ defense in a Facebook post.

“No one may ever blame a police officer who carries out his or her rightful duty to save lives even if they are found responsible for shooting my grandson,” Rabbi Carranza wrote.

“The fault lies in a Child Protective Services of Montgomery County and Harris County,” she continued, “which refused to remove custody from a woman with known mental illness who was not being treated and with the State of Texas for not having strong red flag laws that would have prevented [Moreno] from owning or possessing a gun.”

A 57-year-old innocent bystander also suffered a gunshot wound to the hip but has since been discharged from the hospital.

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