The Texas megachurch shooter has not been identified as transgender, despite claims online

The Texas megachurch shooter has not been identified as transgender, despite claims online



Houston Police officers watch over displaced churchgoers outside Lakewood Church, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Houston, after a reported shooting during a Spanish church service. Social media users are falsely claiming that the shooter has been identified as transgender. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via AP)

BY MELISSA GOLDIN
Published 4:27 PM CST, February 13, 2024

CLAIM: The shooter who carried out an attack injuring two people at a Texas megachurch on Sunday has been identified as transgender.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Houston police said on Monday that its investigation has thus far determined that the shooter, Genesse Ivonne Moreno, identified as female despite using multiple aliases, including the name Jeffery — or Jeffrey — Escalante. Multiple court records identify Moreno as female, most recently in 2022.

THE FACTS: Amid the aftermath of Sunday’s shooting at Lakewood Church, which is led by televangelist pastor Joel Osteen, social media users spread false claims about Moreno’s gender identity.

“BREAKING: Lakewood Church shooter identified as transgender, legal name Genesse Moreno but went by the name ‘Jeffrey,’” reads one post on X, formerly Twitter, that had received approximately 9,100 likes and 6,100 shares as of Tuesday.

Others claimed that Moreno, who was fatally shot in an exchange of gunfire, had been born as Jeffery, but went by Genesse as part of her transition.

Officials have not found any evidence that Moreno was transgender. Police said she used male and female aliases, but that investigators who looked at past police reports determined she identified as female.

“We do have reports she used multiple aliases, including Jeffery Escalante,” Houston Police Commander Chris Hassig said about 19 minutes into a press conference on Monday. “So she has utilized both male and female names, but through all of our investigation to this point, talking with individuals, interviews, documents, Houston Police Department reports, she has been identified this entire time as female, she, her. And so we are identifying her as Genesse Moreno, Hispanic female.

Records in Harris County, where Houston is located, show that Moreno, under the names Jeffery G. Escalante-Moreno or Jeffery G. Escalante, was charged in six criminal cases from 2005 to 2011. She is identified as female in all of them. A case filed in nearby Katy County after Moreno’s latest arrest in April 2022 also lists her as female, but with the name Genesse Ivonne Moreno.

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