A shooting at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church left a woman dead, a 5-year-old boy critically wounded, and another person hurt on Monday.
The woman, who had a trench coat, a backpack, and a young child with her, entered the church around 1:53 p.m. local time and started shooting, according to Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
Two off-duty officers at the church shot and killed the woman, who was in her early thirties. The boy was taken to Texas Children’s Hospital by Houston Fire Department staff. It is not clear who shot him.
Another victim, a man aged 57, was critically injured by the shooting.
The shooter’s name and motive, as well as the identities of the wounded, have not been disclosed by the authorities. The Houston Police Department said on X that they will give more details about the case at a 1:30 p.m. local time news conference. This is what we have learned about the incident so far.
Shots fired just before service
The gunfire rang out just before a Spanish-language service was set to start at the 16,000-seat venue which formerly served as a sports arena. Videos from inside the building showed a frenzy, with many churchgoers running for the exits while others laid on the floor and took cover beneath their seats.
Authorities said the woman threatened that she had a bomb. The Houston Police Department’s bomb squad searched her vehicle and the backpack and found no explosives.
The woman sprayed something on the floor before shooting, according to witnesses, but Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said “There is nothing here that worries us or this place.”
Finner said on Sunday that they would check the whole church to make sure it was safe.
Osteen: ‘We don’t understand why this happened’
Osteen, one of the highest profile pastors in the country who presides over services attended by tens of thousands, said the shooting has left him “in a fog.” Services at the church are regularly attended by 45,000 people every week, making it the third largest megachurch in the U.S., according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Osteen’s televised sermons reach about 100 countries.
“We’ve been here 65 years and to have somebody shooting in your church?” Osteen said at a news briefing with police. “We don’t understand why this happened. We’re going to pray for that 5-year-old boy, and pray for the lady that was deceased and her family and all, and the other gentleman.”
He said the church is “going to stay strong. We’re going to continue to move forward. There are forces of evil but the forces for us, the forces of God are stronger than that.”
Osteen said he’s thankful more people were not hurt. “If there’s anything good of it, she didn’t get in there and do a whole lot worse damage,” he said.