tv America Reports FOX News February 12, 2024 11:00am-12:00pm PST
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>> sandra: as we top a brand-new hour, fox news alert and we are looking at houston right now, set to give an update on camera this hour after a shooting at the joel osteen mega church. at least two people were injured there, including a 5-year-old child now listed in critical condition and we are watching it for you. i'm sandra smith in new york. we hope to learn more shortly, john. >> john: i expect we will. i'm john roberts in washington, this is "america reports". we are learning more about the person who opened fire just before 2:00 in the afternoon yesterday at the popular church, including that at some point genesse moreno went by a man's name. a pair of off duty police officers took out the shooter
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and we are expecting more details as sandra mentioned to be revealed later this hour. >> sandra: william, what do we know happened at the church. >> well, we know that he or she, excuse me, walked in the church around 2:00 p.m. on sunday, lakewood mega church, as we have said, the shooter identified as 36-year-old genesse yvonne moreno. the church seats 1600 people. it was in between spanish language services, she walked in with a 5-year-old, wearing a trench coat and carrying a concealed ar-15 with the words free palestinian written on the stock and then she opens fire. two off duty law enforcement, a houston police officer and a texas alcohol beverage and control commissioner, returned fire and kill her. now moreno, also known as jef jeffrey from el salvador has a lengthy criminal record, assault
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of a police officer, forgery, drug possession, theft and illegally carrying a weapon. now, the 5-year-old boy as you mentioned is in critical condition and some local reports quote hospital officials as saying he is not likely to survive. police have not said what the relation of the boy is to moreno, and he also claimed to have a bomb but police did not find one in the backpack or the lincoln, a yellow cord was coming out of the backpack thought it was a detonation cord, turns out it was not. police offered no motive. a search warrant was performed at a residence north of houston. we may find out answers there. and it could have been worse, right, if the officers did not respond immediately. we'll know more in the presser coming up in 30 minutes. when did he enter the country, did he do to legally, claim persecution because of gender
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identity coming out of el salvador. >> john: also keeping an eye on the pentagon briefing room. lloyd austin back in the hospital after suffering from what was described as emergent bladder issues. meanwhile, the u.s. carried out five self-defense strikes, taking out houthi anti-cruise missiles and drones. they say the houthis were planning to attack commercial ships again. jen, do we know how the secretary is doing? >> we are awaiting the update, should know more during the press briefing, john, we don't know at this point. still receiving critical care, we are told. the white house said moments ago the president does not have any concerns about defense secretary austin's ability to continue to serve, however. austin canceled his trip to nato headquarters tomorrow and new the ukraine contact group meeting which he normally heads to discuss support for ukraine will be held virtually. the defense secretary was taken
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to walter reed by his security detail sunday afternoon and is now being treated in the critical care unit for complications from surgery from prostate cancer. doctors releasing the following statement, it is not clear how long secretary austin will remain hospitalized. the current bladder issue is not expected to change his full anticipated recovery. his cancer prognosis remains excellent. meanwhile, u.s. central command carried out five self-defense strikes in yemen, destroying seven anti-ship cruise missiles and four sea drones houthis were preparing to launch in the red sea. earlier today the houthis fired two missiles at this m.v. star iris, a ship bound for a port in iran used in the past to resupply the houthis with weapons. clearly the level of intelligence has fallen since
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tehran withdrew the prized intelligence ship from the red sea, parking it in djibouti, fearing a u.s. attack. secretary austin extended the deployment of an amphibious group and another, currently the u.s.s. baton and u.s.s. carter hall are in the eastern mediterranean just west of lebanon. and said the u.s. has asked tehran to request hezbollah not to get widely involved in the war against israel. >> sandra: a live look at the dow now, a new record for the dow, up 200 points, 38,872. markets are clearly on a roll and hitting new highs, but seems everyday americans still are not sold on this economy.
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so, what is driving today's market action to bring it, to bring it to us is kevin o'leary joining us now. when you look at this market, what do you think is driving it? considering people keep saying in these polls that they're not confident in their finances, and they are not hopeful about the future. >> well, you just cited the new high in the dow. the dow is an index, majority of investors in the dow are institutions. sovereign wealth funds, institutions in north america's well, that's what's happened over the decades. most of the money invested is institutional. so the decisions they make are around returns. the market has given over a very long period of time anywhere from 7 to 10% annually, depending what decade you look at. and right now what's remarkable about this situation is it seems investors are betting, i'm in that camp, that powell has engineered a soft landing. that's very, very rare, but the
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indices are telling you that as people bet with their dollars. and so that's one part of america but that's only 40% of jobs created in the dow and the s & p 500. the rest of america, or the 60% is small businesses. 5 to 500 employees. that's the backbone of our economy and they are hurting, they are hurting. >> sandra: kevin, we might catch this. karine jean-pierre is live at the white house press briefing, edward lawrence asked her and pressed her about inflation and what people are dealing with. catch this real quick. >> he's tired of seeing the american people being played for suckers and that's something he's not going to allow. but as it relates to -- as it relates to what the president is going to continue to do, do everything that he can to lower costs for the american people and you have seen him do that. >> on this document, when can we talk to the president's doctor and how come they have not n about asked to talk with us, given the hur report that challenges the president's mental fitness?
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>> so, look, you know, just to speak to the hur report really, really quickly, special counsel hur is, as far as i remember, is obviously a republican, a prosecutor. he's not a medical doctor. he's just not. it's not for him to speak to, it's just not. and you've heard from, over the past couple of days since the report has been out, you've heard from legal experts from across the ideological spectrum, even former attorney general, and he says, and they have come out to say that the stuff in this report that is capturing all of your attention right now is just wrong, it's flatly wrong. it is inappropriate. it is gratuitous, i'll leave it there and up for a medical doctor to decide on that. but look, i have said the
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medical doctor, the president's doctor is going to do a physical, and he has always put forth in the last two years a detailed memo on the president's obviously medical physical and so i'm going to leave it there. i don't have anything else to add. >> curious -- >> sandra: so kevin o'leary is still with us here, really important we took the second question in its entirety and the answer in entirety as well, kevin. because it's an important question, right, that edward lawrence from fbn was asking her, after the hur report and the release of it, why not bring the president's medical doctor out to take questions from reporters in the room, considering a majority of americans are concerned about his ability, his mental ability. she did take a question earlier on whether or not the president should take a cognitive test as part of the physical she just mentioned. she said obviously on a physical, which is the president that he proves every day how he
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operates, how he thinks, by dealing with world leaders and making difficult decisions. that's the cognitive test, apparently. on inflation, what did you think. saying the president is working every single day to bring prices down, pointed to milk and eggs, prices are coming down. i don't know, i don't see it. what say you? >> that's not his problem. obviously inflation is being tamed and why we have a soft landing occurring. but that's not the issue he has to deal with at the kitchen table in every state because if you look at the price of eggs and bacon and protein and steaks and fuel and housing, they are still up between 33 and 40% pre-pandemic. and so that's the pain point small businesses and families deal with every day. they deal with that. they don't actually care what the s & p and the dow is doing because they have to live with the dollars they have and the average salary, 62000 in america, that's only gone up 4% while the input costs of food and gas and housing are up 30 to
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40%. that's the dilemma for any politician. imagine inflation is the enemy of the incumbent, always s. how do you speak to that individual voter. who else can you blame but the incumbent. it doesn't matter which party it is and i think with the longevity issue you just detailed now, another element and i'm quite surprised. i look at this through the lens of an investor. i have to make policy decisions what's going to happen with capital invested over the next 24 months and that includes the election. if i thought there was administrative change, i would go more into energy, which is an undervalued asset in the s & p and the dilemma, i think a 50/50 chance in this election that we get a different administration. but i don't know with certainty. but if you told me biden was going to swap out kamala harris, i think he would have a heavier chance of winning with independents because they would not be worried about his longevity issues as much.
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>> sandra: kevin, the b-->> sandra: ready to serve as the democrats sound the alarm over the president's age, lisa booth coming up this hour. thanks for having you here and sticking by on the breaking news. >> take care. >> john: we are awaiting an update from police in houston after the shooting at joel osteen's mega lakewood church. >> sandra: more breaking news we are following for you. tracking two courtrooms this hour. former president donald trump attending a hearing on his classified documents case in florida. and a georgia judge is set to decide whether fulton county d.a. fannis willis and nathan wood will have to talk about their alleged misconduct. >> john: jonathan turley is
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>> sandra: welcome back. there is growing pressure on special counsel robert hur to release the transcript of his two-day with president biden. the calls for the transcript coming two days after the bombshell special counsel report which described president biden as an elderly man with diminished mental faculties. david spunt is live at the justice department with more details on this. likely hur will actually release this? >> sandra, i'm told it's unlikely that a transcript release would come from robert hur, the special counsel or his office, given the fact it's part of his investigative materials. however, it is possible it may come from biden world like the
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white house. as you mentioned, a growing number of republicans, even perhaps some democrats calling for a release of this transcript. this is an interview that robert hur did sitting across from president biden over a two-day period back in october at the white house. now, hur's office is not officially commenting but a source familiar said it's unlikely he would release anything but does not mean that someone in biden world, ala the white house, won't in some form. >> would you recommend these be made public if they indeed back up your personal recollection. >> there's a process underway, i'm not a specialist in the process so defer to those who have to work through those issues. >> ian sams said on friday he's not ruling anything out 100%, and hur under fire for democrats for including the information about the president's cognitive abilities. he's a former u.s. attorney in maryland appointed by then
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president donald trump. those close to the current president, biden, say mr. hur crossed the line and republicans need to settle down. watch. >> this swooning over whether or not the president remembered the year that his son died and therefore is not fit to be president is just really sad and below the belt and unnecessary. >> hur is expected to testify in front of congress at some point in the coming weeks or months, just have other special counsels have. merrick garland here at the justice department said he's in favor of all special counsels being transparent and testifying in public. sandra. >> sandra: david spunt at the justice department. john. >> john: to atlanta, where a motion hearing for fani willis is underway. a judge overseeing former president trump's georgia interference case will determine whether willis and prosecutor nathan wade will testify on their alleged misconduct. let's bring in jonathan turley, george washington university law
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professor and fox news contributor. immediately at issue, jonathan, is when the relationship between fani willis and nathan wade began. they insist that it did not start until after wade was hired in 2022, but wade's former divorce lawyer, who is also a colleague at his law firm, terrence bradley, claims the relationship began way back in 2021 before fani willis even became the attorney general. that's a huge discrepancy. >> it is, and the universe getting stranger and stranger. a former counsel, let alone a former partner does not come forth with evidence suggesting you have lied. but what makes this very serious is that these alleged false statements were put into an affidavit which were, and that affidavit was filed with other papers with the court. keep in mind, wade and willis are prosecuting defendants in this case for making false
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statements and filing false papers or material with the court. so they are prosecuting people for exactly this type of allegation. now, that's not the type of experience you are looking for in prosecutors. it's the type of thing that raises conflicts of interest. but if it is shown and these -- and it's suggested there are witnesses to this fact that their relationship preceded the hiring of nathan wade, they're in serious difficulty. i mean, they are being accused of filing false statements with a court. >> you wrote a lengthy column on this on your website and included a link to the affidavit that nathan wade filed with the court, which includes in part the statement "in 2022, district attorney willis and i developed a personal relationship. in addition to our professional association, and friendship. again there, in 2022." but ashley merchant, the attorney for michael roman who
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brought the challenge against fani willis said since willis and wade were not forthright about the relationship in the first instance, there is no reason to believe that they are telling the truth now. if indeed they did not tell the truth in this sworn affidavit to the court, what are the implications? >> well, their position in this case has become untenable if this is proven to be true. indeed, both of these attorneys could be looking at serious repercussions for filing a false statement of this kind. this was not some aside, this was the core of their argument. what they were flagging in the papers and raising with the court because the relationship started in 2022, there is less of a conflict of interest or other ethical problems associated with the relationship. if they misrepresented that date, then not only is their position as prosecutors in the
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case thrown into question, but their position as counsel, as attorneys is thrown into question with courts. they could be referred to the bar for other possible action. >> john: i want to ask you about donald trump's appearance in court. apparently it just wrapped up in fort pierce, florida. his first hearing in the classified documents case in which the judge is asking for sort of defense theories of how they are going to approach the case. but i'm wondering, since the release of the hur report in which, and then we see the motorcade just leaving there in fort pierce. since the release of the hur report in which president biden was let off the hook for willful retention of documents, the exact same thing that donald trump is facing 32 criminal counts on, does the whole tone and tenor of the case change? >> it has, legally and politically.
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hard to make the case of selective prosecution in most cases but hard to get away from the glaring contrast. the hur report makes out a detailed case, willful retention of documents, disclosure of classified material to other persons and the gross mishandling of documents. those were all charged against trump. and there is i think a legitimate question as to why that was the case. you know, the most that the white house and his counsel can say is that donald trump obstructed the efforts of the fbi. but there is an obstruction charge. that explains that charge. how about all those other charges. and that's the reason hur had to get into the fact that the president would be a sympathetic defendant and has memory problems. it wasn't gratuitous, it was
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essential for why he is not charging the president or why he should be charged after he left office. >> biden, 0 counts of willful retention of documents, donald trump 32 counts. we'll see how it proceeds. good to catch up with you. >> sandra: a live event screen left, that is houston, texas, any moment now we are expected to get an update after the shooter at that mega church yesterday opened fire. what we are now learning about the shooter's gender and a written message on the rifle used. >> john: plus brand-new comments from vice president harris. she says she is ready to serve as biden faces questions about his age. lisa booth up next to weigh in. there's nothing better than a subway series footlong. except when you add on an all new footlong sidekick. we're talking a $2 footlong churro. $3 footlong pretzel and a five dollar footlong cookie. every epic footlong deserves the perfect sidekick.
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now, a new statement from walter reed medical center on secretary of defense lloyd austin's health. take away, underwent nonsurgical procedures under general anesthesia isn't is expected to resume duties tomorrow, to address his bladder issue just announced. they say we anticipate a successful recovery and will closely monitor him overnight. so, any more updates that we get on that, we will bring those to you. but a prolonged hospital stay is not anticipated per this statement, john. >> john: good news, we wish him well. u.s. armed services facing a serious personnel challenge, prompting ways the military handles recruitment. will the update have any effect or is a draft somewhere in our nation's future. alexandria hoff has the latest, and what kind of recruitment changes are we talking about? >> john, this month the navy announced it's dropping the high school graduation requirement, air force is welcoming back
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retirees to active duties, all to combat the recruitment goals. missed last year. marines hit the target but did so while facing the most challenging recruiting environment ins is the establishment of the all volunteer force. the number of military personnel lowest since world war ii. a host of reasons like the jobs market, global conflict and a population problem. >> the typical age range where military recruiters focus their efforts, about 18, 17 to 25 range, right now that's about only 8.5% of our country and that's a 15-year low. so, that's just, you know, an abstract sort of demographic statistic that people don't necessarily think about. >> fox news contributor also weighed in saying that woke military marketing has not
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helped. >> so a lot of factors here going into this right now, a lot of concern, but changes are being made. back to you guys. >> john: alexandria hoff, we want to go a press conference, houston police talking about the shooting yesterday at joel osteen's mega church. >> families were coming together to worship and to prepare for america's number one sports event, we all got calls. it was tragic scene, ongoing investigation, but i can assure everyone that it is our highest priority to have total transparency as we stand before you today. you will know what we know as we learn it. i want to speak to our diverse community. every place of worship is important to the law enforcement community that stands behind me.
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whether it's our churches, our synagogues, our mosque, our temples, we are going to provide you protection. we are increasing security, won't discuss publicly all provisions but are going to continue to make public safety our highest priority. i would also like to emphasize we need to continue to be aware of mental health issues in our community, indications that mental health played a role in an early investigation. i want to also ask the public, not only keep the victims in their prayers, the suspect's family in our prayers, there was a lot of pain exhibited yesterday and being felt today. i want you to pray for the first responders. the two gentlemen that
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neutralized the suspect yesterday, tabc officers and hpd officer did not go to work yesterday morning planning to have to use their weapons. they are suffering today. they need our prayers and our counseling. and in closing, let me thank the men and women of every agency that's represented up here today and some out in the field. i speak quite often about collaboration of our law enforcement agencies in our community. i want the public to know, i want houstonians to know we have every level of government represented here today led by our fine outstanding chief fener. the scene yesterday was hectic. but people came together. agencies, all the agencies representing law enforcement in our community at the state level and the federal level. it's an ongoing investigation but that's the way cooperation is supposed to work.
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and to the houston community. we feel as we stand before you today the community's unity. that's what great communities do. we don't start pointing fingers, we don't worry about who is going to get credit for work, we come together. this is a great community, great people, but with the first responders that showed up at the scene and have worked all night long and have an ongoing investigation, let's keep our first responders, we want to assure reverend osteen's church we understand the trauma that they went through to those families. we want them to understand. everybody was doing everything they could on the scene yesterday. the reunification of the families. we had families separated from their children. so this is what collaboration and unity and dedication to public safety provides.
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let's continue to support the first responders. we'll be very transparent as we go forward and with that message i would like to yield to chief fener. >> thank you very much, mayor. good afternoon, everyone. i want to first thank all of my colleagues and that includes all the men and women on the front line, the mayor hit some points of the collaboration and the difficulty and the scene yesterday but very proud of everybody who showed up and we got everything under control. i want to ask for prayers for a 7-year-old kid who's fighting for his life and questions came up yesterday about him and i think that what we need to do for him is pray. he's still in critical condition, fighting for his life. the last report i got, 57-year-old male who was shot has been released. i want to ask for continued prayers for him and his family,
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and all families involved. the lakewood family, and the mayor spoke on it, but i spoke to pastor osteen this morning and he would have been here but his duty, his heart is with his congregation right now, trying to start the healing process and we want to pray for them and all of our community. but as i said yesterday, i'll say it again, we go through tragic moments, but we are going to stands up as houstonians like we always do with any tragedy, but we wanted to come here and provide an update on the incident of yesterday and i just want to go over a few things, a few individuals who are here. mayor whitmire spoke, chief pena will speak, the fbi, douglas
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williams will say a few words, tabc director, kevin lily will make some remarks. the update on the actual investigation will come from our commander of homicide haseck, follow up in spanish about commander hector garcia to summarize everything that everybody is saying up here briefly and then question and answers. i want to acknowledge the director of dps, gerald brown is here, thank you, and also harris county sheriff, ed gonzalez and our district attorney kim august is here as well. if i missed out on somebody, you let me know. but a lot of work has been conducted and just since yesterday. a lot of things are still going on. we will not be able to answer every question. information we do have we'll share it with you if we can, but
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let's just take that into consideration. also want to close out by saying it's important as the mayor said that our community, and not only religious institutions, all of our communities. we need to hold one another up in this moment and any other moment. we need to watch out for one another, and you'll see us out there more visible presence. but behind those visible presence are true relationships where we communicate every day with everybody in our community that we possibly can and we'll continue to do that. i'm going to step aside briefly and bring up chief sam pena. >> thank you, troy. and thank you, mayor for bringing this group together. i want to first extend my gratitude as well to all the agencies that participated in this incident. the ones that we collaborate on
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a day-to-day basis because again, it's not -- it's about those relationships that are built ahead of time that ensures an efficient response to these types of incidents when needed. also again our prayers to the young child that was injured. our community that is suffering for our traumatic as well when these incidents happen. but the purpose of my briefing is to lay some of the fears out there in regards to possible exposure to chemicals that may or may not have been present at the scene. as we mentioned yesterday, in collaboration with the houston police department bomb squad, contamination task force were on scene conducting tests on any of the products that may have been at the location. the tests were completed, the preliminary tests were completed on scene. i can safely say that there is no risk of exposure to any chemical or product that may
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have been present to anybody that was at the facility, at the church, any of the first responders, anybody that came in contact or in the general vicinity, and certainly no danger to our community in terms of any hazmat products. the products on their own are benign, and they are common products that we would see in other applications. so i want to make sure we communicated that to our community. there was no risk of exposure or ill effect or hazard to our community as a result of any product that was out there, and we are going to continue our partnership with law enforcement, certainly my partner in public safety, troy fener and his team, until we complete this investigation. so, thank you. >> thank you. fbi sac special agent in charge. >> thank you, chief. appreciate it. first like to start by thanking all of the partners who are here
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today for a seamless response to the incident yesterday. good afternoon, my name is doug williams, special agent in charge of the fbi's houston field office. unfortunately we have always said that it's not a matter of if an active shooter event will occur in our city, but when. that when was sunday afternoon just before a service at one of the largest congregations, not just in houston, or texas, but in the united states. we are extremely thankful for the quick response of the two officers working security at the church at the time that engaged the shooter. i think all of us here would agree that if it weren't for them, the number of casualties and victims would have been much higher. there is no doubt -- there is no doubt that their heroic actions saved lives.
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fbi has been assisting our partners at the houston police department with the investigation of the shooting at lakewood church since it immediately happened. we'll continue to assist them for as long as needed. the fbi is working with hpd to follow all logical investigative leads related to the shooting. as the chief just said, it's way too early to determine a motive for the shooter's actions and we are not in the business of speculating. our work is based on facts and evidence and we are still in the process of collecting those facts and evidence. that process will take time. it is very common for the fbi to provide support to partner law enforcement agencies during an active shooter incident and in the immediate aftermath of a shooting. the fbi has an arsenal of local and national resources at our disposal that we can deploy.
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these include technical resources as well as personnel resources such as agents, investigative analysts, evidence response teams, victim service specialists, just to make a few. yesterday we deployed all of those resources and will continue to support hpd for as long as it's needed. in the meantime, if anyone has information about sunday's shooting at lakewood church that they would like to share, i would ask that you please contact the houston police department and share the lead as they are the lead investigative agency. again, the fbi is assisting and we will continue to assist our partners here for as long as needed. thank you very much. >> thank you. kevin lily. >> thanks. >> thank you, mayor. thank you chief. i'm kevin lily, chairman of the texas alcohol beverage
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commission. first offer my sincere condolences to the congregation of lakewood church and greater houston. as the mayor said, our places of worship are both sacred and safe and all texans grieve at what happened at lakewood church yesterday and indeed when the sanctity of a church is violated or any house of worship, that is an attack on the very foundation of this nation, and so we are so grateful for the action of our houston police officer involved as well as tabc agent herrera who were the officers on the scene and their actions together working to neutralize as the suspect, the fbi said saved lives. the word hero was useded but what happened yesterday was heroism and valor in which a
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total disregard for your own safety, saving others before yourself, chief, i was talking to a couple of your deputy chiefs yesterday as well, some of the fbi agents and they spoke almost in great respect of the fact that these two officers held their ground. they held their ground in the face of rifle fire at point blank range. and they continued to fire until the perpetrator was neutralized, and they did not yield. and they remained there as a wall. agent herrera and the hpd officer-involved were a gauntlet, a wall that existed between worshippers and terror, between freedom of religion and murder and we should all be
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mindful of the sacrifices that our men and women in law enforcement make every day. it is a profession of the highest honor. i just thought this morning that if your son or daughter came into your living room tonight and said mom, dad, i want to be a cop, i want to be in law enforcement, you should receive that request with reverence and respect. because these individuals placed their lives on the line for us. it is an act of service unlike any other. and so i would like to thank chief fenner for your excellent, excellent work. also thank our mayor, i have known mayor whitmire for many years and he and i don't always agree on everything politically, we have been on other sides of the fence, but i will say this for as long as i have known him
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he has always honored and respected law enforcement. public safety, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the most critical things that we have. and i would say this. to elected officials that want to defund police, to elected officials that want to demonize law enforcement, i say they do so at their own political peril. and so we need to unify as a community to defend our men and women in the thin blue line. so, i would just like to thank all of you here and to all the brave men and women, that defend our city. >> thank you very much. commander. homicide. >> good afternoon. i'm christopher haseck, commander, hpd homicide, also leader of our special investigations unit.
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i just want to talk about the investigative steps where we are at, what we have accomplished so far, and what we are going to be doing moving forward, all right. please be mindful, we are approximately 24 hours into this investigation. it's very fluid and the investigators under my special investigations unit have been working around the clock and gathering information this entire time. so sunday, yesterday, february 11th at 13:53, 1:53 p.m., we had an individual pull up in front of lakewood church on the west side of the building off of timmons. she gets out of her white vehicle, she opens the door, pulls out the 7-year-old child out of the back seat as well as a bag that is with her. she goes, she confronts a security guard who lets her in
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along the west side of the building. at 13:55 -- pardon me, 1:55 p.m., she immediately starts firing inside of the hallway on the west side of lakewood church. she's in the hall, not in the sanctuary. multiple rounds are fired by her, at which point officer moreno of the houston police department working an approved extra job at the location, as well as agent herrera returned fire and the exchange is all there on the west side of the building in the hallway. multiple shots are exchanged by all three. she eventually falls to the ground, the 7-year-old child falls to the ground as well from gunfire, one gunshot wound to the head, like as mentioned earlier today, he is in critical
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condition at this time, and at 14:07 -- 2:07:00 p.m. she is pronounced deceased by houston fire department personnel. other things that we know at this point in regards to the investigation. our shooter is identified by driver's license as genesse moreno, 36 years old, hispanic female. there are some discrepancies, we do have reports she used multiple aliases including jeffrey escalante, using male and female names, but 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.
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there were two weapons of hers recovered on the scene. an anderson manufacturing ar-15, which was what she utilized to fire at the officers. there was a sticker on the butt stock of the rifle that stated palestine, a sticker simply stated palestine on the butt stock. also within the possession near her, what she brought in according to video and had in a bag was a .22 caliber rifle by blue line solutions. she had that, she brought that in, she did not fire that weapon. we do have her vehicle, we are in possession of that. we will be processing that, and see if there is more evidence. we want to thank our federal and state partners for their assistance in helping process the scene. we have uncovered some items. we do have some antisemitic
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writings we have uncovered during this process, but like i said, we are 24 hours into it, it is venue, we are getting new information as the hours change, and so we are going to be delving into that more. but, we do want to stress that she acted alone. we do believe this is what we term a lone wolf, lone suspect situation. we do not believe this is part of a larger nexus, not part of a larger group or set of individuals. we believe that genesse moreno acted alone. we do have some facts that she was put under an emergency detention order by houston police officers, we believe in 2016. we do believe she does have a mental health history that is documented through us and through interviews with family members. and we do want to state that through our investigation i
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mentioned antisemitic writing. we do believe there was a familial dispute between her ex-husband and her ex-husband's family and some of those individuals are jewish. so we believe that that might possibly be where all of this stems from. we ask anybody with information to please call the houston homicide department, or crime stoppers, 713-222-tips, if they have any information recording miss moreno or anything that could assist us with this investigation. >> thank you very much. hold questions until we translate and then we'll get everybody. come on. thank you. >> thank you. [speaking spanish]
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>> john: so while they're in spanish here, we're going to jump out. we may go back in for questions. some new information there. sandra, the child was 7 years old. not 5 years old as had originally been thought. was shot in the head, which is why he or she is so gravely wounded. the shooter was identified as genesee moreno but had a number of aliases including jeffery escalante. they identified her as a woman. we don't know if that's physical description or if that is a gender description. probably more to come. >> they're going to take questions. we'll get back there as soon that's to. they're going to translate the news for a broader audience and we'll get back to that. >> john: let's bring in nicole porker, fox news contributor, work the park land shooting and
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former special agent for the fbi. looks like there's a tie of mental illness and possession of a weapon. >> right. i have many thoughts on this. i'm actually a native houstonian. i'm familiar with the lakewood church. it's off of a major freeway. this was definitely targeted. there's search warrants executed at the home in conroe texas. that church was targeted. it seats around 17,000 individuals. used to be the arena where the houston rockets played prior to them moving to the toyota center. we know who joel osteen is. he's world famous. i believe this individual targeted this church. what is very disheartening, there's a child involve in this. this woman, this individual who has used multiple aliases, male and female, took a 7-year-old
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child with her to the church, took her out and from my opinion, my perspective, what was the purpose of that? was that part of the grievance? this is an evil individual willing to take a child. was that child going to be used as a hostage, a human shield? does she think if i have this child nobody will touch me and law enforcement won't get rid of me? she was wrong. very sadly and unfortunately now there's a 7-year-old individual shot in the head, fighting for their life. my hopes and prayers go out to that innocent little child right now. >> sandra: the search warrant affidavit requested the fbi assist in retrieving any data from electronic devices found in the home in conroe, 40 miles north of houston. what does that tell you? >> what that tells me is this was targeted. a lot to unpack here with this press conference. this individual had "palestine"
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on the gun. made reference to it. they did have anti-semitic writings. that tells you a lot. what was their motive? obviously they had a problem with this. i think it's a matter of time that they have a problem with this happening in israel, that will use that as an excuse and a time to express their grievance. and to act violent. that's what this individual did. i do not call this a lone wolf. it's a lone offender, this is a coward. this is an evil coward. >> john: we got a minute left in the show. she was under an emergency detention order in 2016. she had a long rap sheet, including self-inflicting bodily injury, forgery, theft, evading arrest, unauthorized carry of a firearm. why does she have a gun? >> that is an excellent question. let me just tell you, with my experience working violent crime in the fbi criminals do not obey gun laws.
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they couldn't careless. if they're willing to kill somebody, the last thing they're worried about is a gun-abiding law. >> sandra: thanks, nicole parker. we appreciate your analysis. they'll be taking questions. that will be crucial to listen to. thanks for your time today. >> john: thank you, nicole. >> sandra: heart breaking, all of it. >> john: in addition to the anti-semitic writings as a result of a dispute with her husband's family, much of whom are jewish. much more to delve in to this. >> sandra: that does it for us. thanks for joining us on "america reports." i'm sandra smith. i'll see you at 4:00. >> john: we'll see you tomorrow. i'm john roberts. "the story" starts right now. trace is in for martha. >> martha: thanks. good afternoon, everybody. i'm trace gallagher in for martha maccallum. significant updates as you've been hearing on the shootings of joel osteen's megachurch in houston. the gun fire was caught on
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