Chilling video appears to capture the moment police say a female shooter with a child in tow opened fire at Joel Osteen’s Houston-area megachurch, before off-duty police officers killed her.
in the video shared on XA bearded man with glasses is seen speaking at the beginning of a Spanish service at Osteen’s Lakewood Church on Sunday afternoon, when he is suddenly interrupted by a burst of gunfire.
The speaker briefly attempts to continue, but then another gunshot echoes through the church, causing him to turn around and see a crowd of terrified people fleeing down an escalator behind him.
The sermon broadcast then cuts to a blue screen showing the Lakewood Church logo.
Police said a woman in her 30s, dressed in a trench coat and carrying a backpack and a long rifle, entered the massive church shortly before 2 p.m. with a 5-year-old boy and opened fire.
A screenshot of a video shows a Lakewood Church official speaking at the beginning of a Spanish service on Sunday when a burst of gunshots is heard. The church worker turns around and sees parishioners fleeing down an escalator. The shooting was carried out Sunday by a woman in her 30s with a 5-year-old child, police said. REUTERS Sunday’s Lakewood church shooting left a 5-year-old boy seriously injured and a man in his 50s injured. AP
Two off-duty officers working security at the church, a Houston police officer and a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agent, returned fire and shot the woman to death, Houston Police Chief Troy said. Finner, at a news conference on Sunday.
The child who was with the woman was seriously injured in the shooting, but it was unclear how he was hit by the gunfire.
When asked if one of the officers shot the child, Finner declined to speculate but said, “That woman, that suspect, put that baby in danger. “I’m going to blame her.”
Two off-duty officers confronted the active shooter and killed her instantly. AP Carlos González, a worship singer, hugs a fellow church member after the church shooting. REUTERS
The young man was taken to Texas Children’s Hospital. His relationship with the woman was not immediately known.
A man in his 50s, described as a bystander, was shot in the hip and was hospitalized in stable condition, Finner said.
Before the gunman died from her injuries, she poured an unknown substance on the ground and told officers there was a bomb, but a search of the area found no explosives.
Pastor Joel Osteen said the violence could have been worse if the shooting had occurred during an earlier service. Via REUTERS
As of Monday morning there was still no information on the possible motive behind the violence.
The ordeal occurred between English and Spanish services at the megachurch.
Pastor Joel Osteen, 60, said during a news conference Sunday that the tragedy could have been worse if the shooting had occurred during the earlier and larger Sunday morning service.
“I could only imagine… if it had happened during the 11 o’clock service,” he said at the scene.
The church, founded by Osteen’s late father, is regularly attended by 45,000 people weekly, making it the third-largest megachurch in the United States, according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn