A woman walked into Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston Sunday afternoon and opened fire but was shot dead by off-duty law enforcement before she could do more than shoot a man in the hip.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said the woman, in her early 30s, was wearing a trenchcoat and carrying a “long rifle” and had with her a young boy about 5 years old, who was also shot. Finner said it wasn’t clear if the off-duty officers shot the child, who was in critical condition at Texas Children’s Hospital.
“I don’t want to speculate on that,” Finner said when asked who shot the boy. “If it was, unfortunate. That female that suspect put that baby in danger. I’m going to put that blame on her.”
The 57-year-old man who was struck in the hip was said to be in stable condition.
Finner said the woman, who entered the foyer just before 2 p.m., threatened that she had a bomb before she was killed, but officers did not find explosives in her backpack or in the car she drove to the church. Officers also said that she also sprayed “some type of substance” on the ground, but Fire Chief Samuel Pena said that “I can safely say we have not found anything that is of concern to our community or this location.”
The chief did not speculate on a motive for the gunplay, saying that “we may never know” why they woman did what she did.
Osteen said that his megachurch was “between services” at the time of the shooting, heading into its Spanish language service.
“We’re devastated,” he said. “We’re gonna pray for that little 5-year-old boy and for the lady that is deceased, her family and all, and the other gentleman.”
“We were in between services going into the Spanish service,” he said. “If there’s anything good of it, it’s that it didn’t do a whole lot worse damage.”
Osteen’s church seats nearly 17,000 people. It’s not clear how many people were inside at the time, but the main service, at 11 a.m., had ended and the Spanish service was about to begin.
Finner said the off-duty officers involved were a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agent and a Houston Police officer. Both will be placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
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[Featured image: FILE – Flags fly in front of the Lakewood Church in this June 28, 2005 file photo in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan, File)]
