HOUSTON – Lakewood Church held its first Sunday services since a deadly shooting took place at the church one week ago.
Last Sunday, police said Genesse Moreno went into the church at about 2 p.m. with her 7-year-old son.
She had an AR15, and she began shooting in the hallway. Two off-duty law enforcement officers approached her, returned fire, and she was killed.
Moreno’s 7-year-old son and a 57-year-old man were also injured during the incident.
On Sunday, the congregation reflected on the shooting. They also said they recognized the angels that were watching over the building and the church members last week.
Church members prayed for the 7-year-old, for his family, and for Moreno.
Following the service, Pastor Joel Osteen spoke to KPRC 2′s Brittany Jeffers about the response to the shooting and where he was at the time.
Osteen praised the response of area law enforcement and the church’s security team to the shooting. He also said while they are always looking to improve, they believe the church has a strong security plan.
“We are just proud of the police and our own security here, they were heroes so we celebrate what they’ve done and we thank them for what they’ve done, I think we are always looking, but we have a very strong plan in place,” Osteen said.
Osteen said he was at the church when the shooting happened and had just finished up visiting with people.
“I had been in a lobby just like this across the way and I just finished talking with visitors and I went downstairs to change, headed upstairs and some technicians came running out, their eyes were big like there had been some kind of incident. I thought what in the world. So I just went back to my office and so it was 15 or 20 minutes before we knew anything so we were there just wondering and not knowing what’s happening,” Osteen said.
Osteen said the first message he got on his phone was from Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
“That’s when the chief texted me are you ok. So I just waited there and we had to just wait like everybody else to see what was happening and fortunately it turned out as good as it could, you know, because it could have been so much worse,” he said.
At one point during the service, Osteen became emotional while praying and asking the congregation to pray for the shooter and her family.
“I just get overwhelmed when I think about, you know, I just feel sorry for the lady that lost her life, you know, she was just mentally ill and nobody brings a child or could do stuff like that, so its just, I guess I just feel the hurt there, it wasn’t tears of fear or anything like that, I guess its just pretty overwhelming to me,” he said.
Osteen said he is grateful Moreno did not make it into the church sanctuary and credited the church’s security team and law enforcement for preventing that from happening.
“I think that our security plan, you know, that person never got into that auditorium and that’s the whole thing, I celebrate what the security team did,” he said.