The investigation of a shooting at Lakewood Church last year ahead of a Sunday worship service involving a mother who opened fire inside the megachurch while she was with her 7-year-old son before being killed by off-duty officers will be reviewed by a grand jury.
Courtney Fischer, a Houston District Attorney's Office spokesperson, told Houston Public Media Thursday that the case will be presented to a grand jury on an undisclosed date.
"Grand juries meet every so often," Fischer said. "We never publicize exactly what cases go when. We don't want it to taint a grand jury pool."
Officer Christopher Moreno of the Houston Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agent Adrian Herrera were both working off-duty at Lakewood Church on Feb. 11, 2024, when Genesse Ivonne Moreno, a mentally troubled 36-year-old woman, opened fire inside the church.
The woman's then 7-year-old son, Samuel Moreno-Carranza, was also shot in his head during his mother's armed attack on the church. A 57-year-old bystander was also shot in the leg.
The Houston Police Department confirmed that it turned the case over to the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
"The case will be presented to a grand jury," Fischer told Houston Chronicle. "This is custom for any officer-involved shooting in which a law enforcement discharges his/her weapon and an individual is struck."
Jodi Silva, a spokeswoman for the Houston Police Department, told the Chronicle that the "case file" included investigative information on the officers involved in the shooting. A determination will be made by the district attorney's office whether the two officers will be charged.
Moreno's mother-in-law, Walli Carranza, previously said she wasn't sure why Moreno chose to attack the church but speculated that her former daughter-in-law's mental health struggles, coupled with a custody battle over her son, contributed to what happened.
Carranza also stated that her former daughter-in-law worshiped at Lakewood Church and told The Associated Press that during a custody battle between her son, Enrique Carranza, and Moreno over her grandson, her attorney sent emails to Lakewood Church in 2020 and 2021 asking for help. The request was made based on the belief that Moreno's mother was a member of the church.
Don Iloff, a Lakewood Church spokesperson, told the AP last year that their records show Moreno only attended the church "sporadically" for a couple of years, and beyond 2022, they have no record of her attendance.
He further noted that they did not find any records showing Moreno's mother attended services at the megachurch or receipt of any emails from Carranza's attorney.
Iloff added that the extent of the help they could have offered to Moreno would have been limited to spiritual and biblical counseling.
"If we had reached out and [Moreno] had accepted counseling, then we definitely would have been more than happy to provide that," Iloff said.
The custody battle over their son started in Harris County, Texas, but ended in Montgomery County. Enrique Carranza was granted custody of his son in Harris County, but a new trial in Montgomery County awarded custody to Moreno, even though the boy's paternal grandmother had asked a judge to appoint her as temporary conservator after pointing out that Moreno had schizophrenia and didn't always take her prescribed medication.
In his testimony to a Harris County judge, Enrique Carranza said he wasn't told about the birth of his son until a month after he was born, and Moreno had "told the hospital that (he) was dead."
In documents filed in Montgomery County, Walli Carranza said Moreno and her mother "knowingly and intentionally harmed" Samuel by "lying" to authorities for reasons hard to understand "even by the pastoral staff of Joel Osteen's church," which is where Moreno's mother claimed to be a member.
Walli Carranza had been caring for Samuel Moreno with the death of his mother and his father's imprisonment, but a recent death announcement said she died on Jan. 18.
Enrique Carranza is currently in a Florida prison for failing to register as a sex offender and won't be released until August.
It was unclear Friday what has happened to Samuel Moreno. Melissa Landford, a spokeswoman at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, told Houston Chronicle they couldn't comment on his case.
"The specific details of that investigation are confidential according to law," Landford said. "CPS has not received a new report of suspected abuse or neglect involving the child since the department closed the case in 2024."
