Concern continues to mount as the Lakewood Church shooter’s disturbing behaviour is revealed online in the wake of the shooting inside Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston, Texas on Sunday.
Genesse Moreno, 36, opened fire at the church sparking a gunfight with two off-duty cops that left her seven-year-old son – whom she had brought with her – fighting for his life in hospital. He remains in critical condition.
Houston police said in a press conference on Monday that, although Moreno had sometimes gone by the alias “Jeffrey Escalante”, their investigations so far had found no evidence that she had ever identified as any gender other than female.
But conservative pundits, activists, and politicians have continued to spread the unfounded claim that she was a transgender woman – even after it was kiboshed by police.
The Independent has also found no mention of any trans identity in court documents from Moreno’s past divorce and child custody battle, and police have confirmed that she was the biological mother of her son.
Moreno, who has a lengthy criminal record, allegedly carried out the shooting using an AR-15 with the word “Palestine” across it, police said.
A criminal past, multiple aliases and a megachurch donation: Who is Lakewood shooter Genesse Moreno?