at this hour, we are waiting for some breaking news because we're standing by for a press conference after a shooting at one of the most famous megachurches in the country. sources now telling nbc news that the suspect had a rifle with the word palestine on it when she went on the attack with a small child in tow. also breaking, the georgia d.a. prosecuting donald trump is fighting back against a subpoena. will fani willis have to testify about an alleged affair that critic says should disqualify her from the case? we're live with the hearing that is just getting underway. also ahead, pentagon officials answering questions from the press later this hour as defense secretary lloyd austin remains hospitalized in a critical care unit. what we know about his condition and his third hospitalization in just over seven weeks. and donald trump has a message for taylor swift showing

he does seem worried that the pop superstar might endorse joe biden. our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments and we begin in houston, and the new details we're learning about a suspect who walked into a houston mega church with a child and started shooting. nbc's tom winter is following this story for us. so, tom, we have a slew of new information about the suspect. what can you tell us? >> that's right, chris. three senior law enforcement officials have been briefed on this investigation to nbc news identified the individual who they believe is responsible for the shooting as, jennese yvonne moreno. department of public safety records, she has had six arrests including an unlawful carrying of a weapon, evading arrest, as well as assault on a public official. that was later pleaded to a

lesser charge. this individual does have a history with law enforcement. they believe this is the person who was responsible for bringing an assault style riffle. in total, chris, nearly three dozen rounds were fired from that rifle on sunday afternoon just in advance of a service at 2:00 p.m. local time. this individual had their young son with them. that child is in critical condition at a local hospital. the individual who they have identified, moreno, apparently she stated that she had a bomb at some point in the incident. they checked that out. there was no signs of bombs there. i think the bomb angle is something we're going to have to watch for in this upcoming briefing. nothing has been ruled in or ruled out. as you mentioned, palestine was written on the weapon. they're trying to determine is

this part of a hate crime. is this terrorism, what are they looking at here, and what were this individual's motives and how long had they been planning it, i think is another big question we'll hopefully get more details at the bottom of the hour when we get this press conference. >> tom winter, thank you for that. let's turn to nbc's blayne alexander in atlanta where the hearing on fulton county fani willis is getting underway. what's the issue here? >> reporter: all of this is looking ahead to what is expected to be a very pivotal hearing on thursday. that would be really the first time that judge scott mcafee is going to hear the back and forth of these allegations, basically saying that fani willis and her team should be disqualified from prosecuting this case because they say that she's financially benefitting from a personal relationship with nathan wade. up until this point, chris, the only way we've seen this play out is with a flurry of motions and filings back and forth, subpoenas and such, but now it's going before a judge. what's at issue today is whether

or not fani willis, nathan wade, and members of willis's staff will have to take the stand and testify under oath on thursday. they have been subpoenaed by ashley merchant, the attorney for michael roman, the trump codefendant who launched the motion that set this into play. willis is saying a hearing on thursday would be nothing but a circus. there's no need to have herself, wade and her staff testify. and separately, wade has filed his own motion to quash a subpoena, basically saying that ashley merchant trying to get his bank records, personal and professional bank records is nothing but a fishing expedition. all of this is pointing towards thursday. remember, this for the past month has been the focus of the trump case here in georgia. what really has upended this entire thing with a number of defendants, including donald trump himself signing on and saying fani willis should be

disqualified. we'll get a good sense today and certainly on thursday, which direction scot mcafee is leaning in terms of how this will play out. >> nbc's blayne alexander, thank you. and let's go to nbc's courtney kube at the pentagon. what more do we know about his condition right now? >> we don't know exactly what condition he's in besides the update that he had sunday evening that he's been in critical care. now, we are expecting to get a little bit more detail here this hour from major general pat ryder, he's going to brief at 2:30. what we know is that secretary austin went to the hospital, not via ambulance but his security detail to walter reid, a little bit after 2:00 p.m. because of symptoms of what seemed to be an emergent bladder issue. over the next several hours and throughout some testing, he was determined to have some sort of a problem that required him to be admitted to walter reid. about 5:00 p.m. last night, he transferred his authority asks duties to deputy secretary of defense kathleen hicks.

and we did find out just today that the trip he was supposed to go on tomorrow to brussels, a pretty important trip to neigh -- nato, he's canceled his travel, and they are doing the meetings virtually. this is a busy week for secretary of defense lloyd austin for him to be dealing with serious health issues. chris. he was supposed to go to host the ukraine contact group. that is a meeting of 50 nato allies and other allies who come together and talk about equipment, weapons, ammunition, things that they can provide to ukraine to help fight russia, and this comes at a very critical time when the u.s. is in the midst of a battle about funding additional aid for ukraine. secretary austin has been at the helm of meetings for months now. not having him present for this one this week is significant. but again, pentagon is saying that they will conduct the meeting virtually for now. it's not clear, though, if secretary austin will still be

in the hospital on wednesday when that meeting is taking place. he was also due to go to a nato defense minister's meeting on thursday. again, that travel has been canceled, chris. courtney kube, thank you. meantime, former president donald trump has been wading into right wing conspiracy theories about taylor swift, but now he's talking about the upcoming election. nbc's garrett haake is following this story for us. okay. he kind of went after her on social media or issued a warning. i'll let you interpret it. what did he have to say? >> if you're not living at the taylor swift, donald trump, ven diagram like i am, this may seem like it came out of nowhere. there's been reporting that the biden campaign would like to earn taylor swift's endorsement at some point, makes sense, she's probably the most famous person on the planet. on super bowl sunday, donald trump made this post on his social media account in which he basically says joe biden has never done anything for taylor

swift, and then he passed this music modernization act that passed in 2018. that's the kind of thing that should get her endorsement for him. also he makes a comment about liking her boyfriend, travis kelce, even though he may be liberal. this has a general basis in reality about the politics. this comes as the maga universe has been awash in conspiracy theories about taylor swift and her role in politics, travis kelce, is a spokesperson for pfizer, the vaccine maker. some of this stuff is unhinged and kelce was asked about it in the super bowl pregame show. he dealt with it pretty directly. >> what do you say to the cranky nfl fans that say it's all a conspiracy theory. >> you're all crazy. every last one of you, you're crazy. >> among the conspiracy theories here somehow the nfl, the biden administration, taylor swift were all working together to get taylor swift to the super bowl. the biden folks had a little bit

more fun with this even than travis kelce did posting this meme of the president with this dark branding around it saying after the chiefs won, it was just like we drew it up, chris. >> my absolute favorite conspiracy theory is, they say it's a fake relationship, that actually she's going after him for his money. >> there it is, yes. >> she has $1.1 billion according to forbes. >> doesn't have to make sense to be a good conspiracy theory, chris. >> garrett haake with a lesson in civics for me, thank you so much. in 60 seconds, donald trump is back in court in the mar-a-lago classified documents case. how will both sides handle the evidence, so sensitive that there's debate if it should even be shown in court. hown in court.

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case has been unfolding all day in florida where the former president is charged with 31 counts of illegally holding on to some of the nation's most sensitive intelligence. each count is related to a separate document found at mar-a-lago including nine marked secret. 21 marked top secret. that's the highest level of classification. the key question before judge aileen cannon today, much of that information can be turned over to trump's defense team, and how much should stay secret. i want to bring in nbc's katie phang outside the courthouse in fort pierce, florida. and charles coleman is the civil rights attorney, former prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst. good to have all of you. where do things stand with this hearing, and have we seen donald trump at all? >> reporter: donald trump arrived this morning with his defense team. he met with aileen cannon. it was supposed to conclude at 2:00. we have been waiting to see that caravan of suvs leave the

federal courthouse behind me. and starting at 3:00, special counsel jack smith's team gets to meet with aileen cannon without the defense side present, to deal with outstanding issues from when special counsel jack smith met with aileen cannon on january 31st. cipa, the classified information procedure act, they are specific when it comes to process. the hearing taking place today is a part of that particular classified information procedures act. what's interesting is the fact that donald trump himself arrived at the courthouse today to sit in a courtroom with the judge that's presiding over his criminal case without the prosecutors being present. in addition, though, his codefendants, walt nauta and

carlos were not allowed to be present today. explaining their theories of defense, and the government will meet with the judge to explain why certain classified documents should not be turned over at all or perhaps in a redacted or substituted form. >> that's the heart of it. explain how the judge balances trump's right to defend himself with the national security concerns. >> well, this is exactly one of the challenges in classified information cases, and it's what the law is designed to do is to allow the defendant to see summaries of the documents, potentially, but not the documents themselves necessarily. at the end of the day, the question is did the president know the documents were classified. did he retain them? did he do so willfully, and fail to turn them over when asked to do so. and knowing what's in the details of the documents or not. may not be material to the ultimate underlying charges but that's what the judge needs to

suss out, how classified they are, and how sensitive they are, and should the government protect him from a defendant. this is one of the hard things about classifying any case, and involving some of the classifications at the highest levels possible. >> this is at the heart of the common sense cal part of this. can you convince a jury something egregious happened here if they don't know what's in the documents? >> i think they can. one of the things people are not considering is the x factor of the judge. she has shown she has her thumbs on the scale, and is amenable to the arguments his defense team is making around the notion that we need to know as much about the documents as possible. that's intentional. what they're trying to do is put enough pressure on the prosecutor to make a decision about what they decide to put forward in terms of their section 4 plan under cipa that katie was talking about. all of this is a game of stress and strategy, and aileen cannon

is the variable people have not accounted for because of her tendency to play towards donald trump and his defense team in their arguments. under normal circumstances you could do that. as jameel talked about, you don't need to talk about the specifics of the documents. to a question in front of the judge, it's an inquiry around why does this matter. >> explain why the defense believes they need access to the documents, and you know, we're coming off the super bowl, the gdp of a small nation. what do you think the chances are they will ultimately get access? >> well, you know, i think they'll probably get access to some of the documents. their argument is going to be in order for the president to understand part of his defense and make his defense, which may be in part that he declassified the documents or the documents were never classified in the first instance, and therefore he did nothing wrong by detaining them, they're going to want to see the documents and make the arguments. the challenge is once they see the documents, there's a

question whether they will be presented to the jury again and made public. oftentimes, defendants in cases involving classification, an effort to get the government to drop or reduce the charges based on the fact that highly classified information might come out. cipa is designed to prevent that as katie and charles laid out. the question is what's the judge going to do about it. they're meeting with trump and his defense separately. they call it behind closed doors with one party there. we'll see where she comes out at the end of the day, and if either side is displeased, they might make an appeal to the 11th circuit as it happened before in this very case. >> a case that was involved with oliver north. that's a very famous name from back in the '80s. they dropped some of the most serious charges against him, right? >> it is something that's been effective for defendants in the past. it puts prosecutors in a unique position. you have to make a decision about how important are certain documents to your charges and actually getting a conviction, versus what is pleading the case?

what is building the case? and i think that this is exactly the space that they would like to put jack smith and the doj in. which is why in this section 4 hearing, they're going to hammer, look, we need to have all the details, all the information, because the idea is the more we ask for, we may not get everything, but we will get enough, hopefully, with this judge that it will make jack smith's job difficult. and he's going to have to make judgment calls as to what he leaves in, out, and what he decides to compromise around. >> is this a situation where he'll make a decision, get a written ruling. will it just be announced in court? how is this going to play out? >> reporter: yeah, so chris, it's going to be a written ruling. it cannot be announced in court. the written ruling will be the subject of an appeal. cipa provides a specific subsection for an expedited appeal. for those of us watching the time line of trump's trials, if judge smith is unhappy with

cannon's rulings, jack smith's team can take an immediately appeal. i would mention quickly before i say good-bye to you guys, there's a move by donald trump to get access to the section 4 filing itself. what do i mean by that? jack smith had to file a section 4 filing under seal, submitted to the court. donald trump actually wants his hands on that document. that's unusual. contained within that filing is a sworn declaration from the intelligence community explaining why each particular piece of evidence that's classified information is classified, why it's so important, and why it reaches those very elevated standards of being protected and guarded. the judge today is also hearing arguments from both sides as to the merits of whether or not donald trump and the other defendants in this case can actually get their hands on the section 4 filing. >> katie phang, jameel jeffers, and charles coleman, thank you all so much. still ahead, joe biden's team put on a full court press

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it's not going away. the debate over president biden's age and mental acuity, being kept in the news by his own campaign, instead of ignoring it or trying to make it go away, they're mounting an aggressive fight against the ur

report, questioning his mental competency, his defender are out in force. >> this is report that went off the rails. >> this guy is tough, he's smart, he's on his game. this kind of sense that he's not ready for this job is a bucket of bs that's so deep, your boots will get stuck in it. >> trump himself raising more questions about his own age in rambling speeches where he mistook biden for obama, slurred his words and even ready teleprompter cues. >> rich people are given $7,000 subsidies. >> the danger from within is far greater, in my opinion, than the danger on the outside. the fascists, the communists, serious socialists. i hear they like obama better. they should like obama better, you know why, because he didn't

ask for anything. >> we have to win in november or we're not going to have pennsylvania. they'll change the name. they're going to change the name of pennsylvania. >> we can be energy independent, and we can even be energy dominant, and yes, quickly says that, president trump. >> all of that raising two key strategic questions. why is team biden keeping this in the news, and why is trump not focusing on it? john kasich is the former republican governor of ohio and an msnbc political analyst. right here on set, presidential historian, douglas brinkley. okay. governor, voters are clearly concerned about joe biden's age. does the biden team have any choice but to rebut it, but then of course that keeps it in the news. >> well, first of all, i don't think they're going to be affected by people coming out and trashing the report. i don't think that joe biden can hide in the basement and do a rose garden strategy to be effective here.

look, he's done a lot of things here on the border trying to get this agreement. nobody in the country knows about it. i mean, why wasn't he really attacking the republicans for being hypocrites about this. secondly, you know, netanyahu just said that he's been dealing with biden in the middle east, an explosive situation. he said biden's been on point. thirdly, he's attacked these iran proxies. nobody knows anything about this. it's like they won't let him speak. so i know that he makes mistakes. he's made mistakes all of his lifetime. to think that he can have people go out and bad mouth a report, people have got to hear from biden, and if they hear from biden, they know he's going to make mistakes, they need to hear that he knows what he's doing, that he's sharp, and that he's done things they're not seeing. in other words, he may be a better president than what we see on tv or what we see in his speeches. >> and that's exactly, doug, what a lot of people who are around him every day are trying to convince the american people of. and look, we're in a whole new

world, but is there anything in history that suggests maybe what joe biden needs to do? >> yes, i think he needs to be harry truman. right now, he's attacking the hur report, and you know why. i mean, invoking beau biden seemed beyond the pale. it's uncomfortable the report. he has to be there fighting joe biden. in 1948, nobody thought harry truman could win. he had defections in the democratic party, left on race, henry wallace, left for a progressive, yet a pro russia party with eleanor roosevelt, but truman came up with his own idea, went 15 days on a train to california and said i'm doing it for the people. he didn't have to give press interviews. just seeing the vis taj of them, and did it in the midwest. joe biden might want to do that with a bus, a train, find a way

to let people feel you, be there, without being as the governor suggested in that rose garden or bunker. >> you know, i was thinking about this as i read this new abc poll, which mirrors what our nbc poll says, doug, that they think 86% biden is too old to serve another term. a lot of people thought that about ronald reagan, and in 1984, he had one of the most memorable lines in presidential debate history. this one. >> i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. >> i mean, monodale had to give him that one, right? reagan was younger then than joe biden is now, but is it our view of ageing that's changed? is it this particular circumstance? what's going on right now? because as much as joe biden has tried to joke it away, that

hasn't worked. >> well, in 1981, ronald reagan was shot. we didn't have the big recovery in the economy, and there was a thought that mondale could beat him. age was the issue. reagan had one liners like that. he used to keep note cards and would have jokes in them. that was his hobby. trump and obama golf, ronald reagan collected jokes. i think joe biden can learn from that. biden can be very funny, he is warm. i would up the humor on the age front, and go a little less with trying to, you know, beat up on a reporter that's not happy about his performance last week or some of the criticism. reagan was like a macy's day parade. he flowed over the criticism and run his own game and not be the anti-press president that you can easily fumble into when you feel you're being unfairly treat ed by supposedly allies.

>> "the new york times" governor also looks at why the age issue is hurting biden so much more than trump, specifically pointing to his physical appearance, and two notable falls. they wrote, mr. trump does not appear to be suffering the effects of time in visible ways, holds fourth in speeches with macho rhetoric and bombast that lasts well over an hour. a display of stamina. we heard the mistakes he made and made repeatedly, whether it's about nancy pelosi, confusing her with nikki haley or obama and biden. why do you think it's resonating more about joe biden than it is about donald trump? >> because people see the him sort of stumbling around on the stage, not knowing how to get down the stairs. he ought to stop this business of talking in front of the helicopter where he's shouting and nobody could hear him. i don't think that -- i love

douglas, but i'm not so sure continue to go joke about this, he needs to show people, i am focused. what you see sometimes in public is not what i'm doing when i'm trying to run the country. when i try to have my conversations with netanyahu. when i sit in the situation room, not enough a picture, but tell people what you're doing in there. i think that is what he has to do. i have been thinking for a while that maybe he could hide in a basement. that's not going to work. this issue keeps coming back. in regard to trump, it just doesn't appear he's become more feeble or more out of it, and no matter what they try to say about it, people just, they watch. they look. they see things. and then they draw a conclusion. so, look, it's also a very long way to the election. there's going to be a lot of things that are going to change. i'm going to tell you, if the economy continues to improve, and that's a question a lot of people have in their minds, if it improves, he's got to you about it. not his advisers, not the vice

president, he has to be out there saying, it taking credit for what he has been able to accomplish. we just don't hear it from him, though. >> and to that point, doug, yesterday, a lot of people argued it would have been a golden opportunity for president biden to have 15 minutes before the super bowl, tens of millions of people, generally a pretty friendly interview, and now there's talk that there may be no presidential debates, which is another huge opportunity or is it. historically, have they made a difference. is that a lost opportunity if there's no debates? >> i thought the super bowl was a lost opportunity, and you saw robert f. kennedy jr. buying his $7 million ad and, you know, why not use that air time, but the debates we'll have to see, you know, the first presidential debate was 1960. there's no debate in 64 or 68, 72. 76 it kicked back in. it's not that it's a birthright

to have presidential debates. we'll have to see if trump and biden can roll on that, and if a third party candidate could enter the fray with him also, perhaps. >> doug brinkley, great to have you here. governor kasich, you're going to stick around. a connection to the shooting at joel's church. 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. . it's our churches, our

synagogues, our mosques, our temples, we are going to provide you protection. we're increasing security. won't discuss publicly all provisions, but we're going to continue to make public safety our highest priority. i would also like to emphasize we need to continue to beware 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 neutralized the suspect yesterday, hpd officer did not

go to work yesterday morning, planning to have to use their weapons. they're suffering today. they need our prayers and our counseling. in closing, let me thank the men and women of every agency that's represented up here today and some are 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 that we have every level of government represented here today. led by our fine outstanding chief. the scene yesterday was hectic, but people came together, agencies, all the agencies representing law enforcement in our community at the state level and at the federal level. it's an ongoing investigation, but that's the way cooperation is supposed to work. 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's 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 want to understand the trauma they went through. we want them to understand. everybody was doing everything they could on the scene. the reunification of the families. we had families separated from their children. so this collaboration and unity and dedication provides. 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 finer. >> 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 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, and all families involved.

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. as i said yesterday, i'll say it again. we go through tragic moments, but we're going to stand up as houstonians, as like we always do with any tragedy, but we wanted to come here and provide an update on the incident yesterday. and i just want to go over a few things, a few individuals who are here. i'm speaking to chief pena will speak. the fbi douglas williams will say a few words. tabc director, kevin lily will make some remarks.

the update on the actual investigation is going to come from our commander of homicide. we'll follow up in spanish with commander hectare garcia, will probably summarize everything that everybody is saying up here briefly, and then we'll go to question and answers. i also want to acknowledge the director of dps gerald brown is here. thank you, and also harris county sheriff gonzalez. and district attorney kim argas is here as well. if i missed out on somebody, you let me know. 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 that we do have, we'll share it with you if we can. let's just take that into consideration. also, i 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. 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 extend my gratitude to the agencies that participated in this event, the ones we collaborated with on a day-to-day basis. it's about those relationships

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 as traumatic for the community when these incidents happen. the purpose of my briefing here today is to allay some of the fears that may be out there in regards to any 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's bomb squad our hazmat task force and decontamination task force were on scene, conducting tests at products that may have been at the location. the tests were completed. the preliminary tests were completed on scene. i can safely say there is no risk of exposure to any chemical or product that may have been present to anybody that was at the facility, at the church, any

of the first responders, any 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're common products that we would see in other applications, so i wanted to make sure that 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're going to continue our partnership with law enforcement, certainly my partner in public safety, troy finer and his team, until we complete this investigation. so turn it back to you, chief. >> thank you. fbi special agent in charge williams. >> thank you, chief, appreciate it. i would first like to start by thanking all of the partners who are here today for a seamless response to the incident

yesterday. good afternoon, my name is doug williams, i'm the special agent in charge of the fbi's houston field office. unfortunately we've 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 and texas but in the united states. we are extremely thankful for the quick response of the two officers working security at the time that engaged the shooter. if it weren't for them, the number of casualties and victims would have been much higher. there is no doubt that their heroic actions saved lives. the 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're not in the business of speculating. our work is based on facts, and evidence. and we're 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 after math of a shooting. the fbi has an arsenal of local and national resources at our disposal that we can deploy. that he is include technical

resources as well as personnel resources, agents, analysts, evidence response teams, victim as much as specialists, just to name a few. yesterday we deployed all of those resources and we'll 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, we'd ask that you please contact the houston police department and share the lead as they are the lead investigative agency. the fbi is assisting, and we will continue to assist our partners here for as long as needed. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> director kevin lily, thanks. >> thank you, mayor. thank you, chief. >> i'm kevin lily, chairman of the texas alcoholic beverages, i

would like to offer my sincere condolences to the congregation. our places of worship are sacred and safe. all texans grieve 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. so we are so grateful for the action of our houston police officer involved as well as tabc agent adrian hererra who were the officers on scene, and their actions working together to neutralize the suspect as the fbi said saved lives. you know, the term hero has been used today, and sometimes it's said flippantly, but i think what happened yesterday was personification of heroism and valor in which a total disregard for your own safety, saving others before yourself.

chief, i was talking to a couple of deputy agents, as well as 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. ago hererra and the hpd officer involved were a gauntlet. they were a wall that existed between worshippers and terror. between freedom of religion and murder. and we should all be 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 place their lives on the line for us. it is an act of service unlike any other. and so i would like to thank chief, for your excellent, excellent work. i would also like to thank our mayor. i have known mayor whit meyer for many years. 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, 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 who defend our city. >> thank you very much. amanda. >>. >> good afternoon, i'm christopher hassig, commander, hpd homicide, also leader of our special investigations unit. last name hassig. i want to talk about the investigative steps, where we're

at, what we've accomplished so far and what we're going to be doing moving forward. 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 in 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 backseat as well as a bag that is with her. she goes. she confronts a security guard who lets her in along the west side of building. at 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 areviewed extra job at the location, as well as tabc, agent hererra 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 has been mentioned earlier today, he is in critical condition at this time. and at 2:07 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 genessey moreno. she used multiple aliases, so she has utilized both male and female names. but through all of our investigation to this point, talking with individuals interviews documents, she has been identified thisime as female. she, her, and so we are identifying her as gennessey moreno, hispanic female. 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 of near her, what she brought in, according to video and she 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's 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 anti-semitic writings that we have uncovered during this process, but like i

said, we are 24 hours into it. it is very new. 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 was what we term a lone wolf, lone suspect situation. we do not believe this is part of a larger nexus. she is not part of a larger group or set of individuals. we believe that she 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 mentioned anti-semitic writing. we do believe that there was a

familial dispute that has taken place between her ex-husband and her ex-husband's family, and some of those individuals are jewish. we believe that might possibly be where all of this stems from. we ask anybody with information to please call the houston homicide department 713-308-3600 or if they have any information regarding ms. moreno or anything that could assist with this investigation. >> thank you very much. >> we'll hold questions until we translate, and then we'll get everybody. anslate, and then we' everybody. [ speaking in global language ] so we have some new

information obviously in the shooting we know the suspect is 36-year-old gennessey moreno. i want to bring in tom winter, msnbc national security analyst and former assistant director for counter intelligence at the fbi, frank figliuzzi. i have to say, tom, that's a fairly comprehensive assessment given that the shooting was just yesterday. what's your take away? >> that's right. confirming information, nbc first reported earlier today that moreno is 36 years old. there was a discussion about chemicals that were found or something that was found there. and whether or not there was any threat to the people who attended the 2:00 p.m. service yesterday or to the community there at the church, and they said that there was not. we received information earlier today that this individual, moreno, may have sprayed some sort of substance or sprayed

something at the scene. and so that's what that is an apparent reference to. again, officials saying it's benign common household items. that dove tails with reporting in the last 40 minutes or so that according to multiple law enforcement officials to nbc news, they're trying to determine whether or not some chemicals that were found in moreno's house, the fbi searched that house. it's quite a bit north of texas, that in the course of that search, they uncovered several chemicals. whether or not those could have been used to have built an explosive at some point. they're common household chemicals. when prepared a certain way can obviously be quite dangerous. this investigation, as you heard them say multiple times is ongoing. as far as the specific motive, the fbi said it's too early to get there. however, you just heard from the houston police department that not only did they find palestine written on the gun and we've reported that earlier, but new information that there was some

anti-semitic writings that that individual it. and apparently she had those on her person, and there had been a recent dispute involving family members, including her ex-husband and his family, some of whom are jewish. that's something they're looking at here. where this all goes, obviously this individual is deceased. her 7-year-old son is in very critical condition, suffering a gunshot wound to the head. there appears at this moment not to be any sort of a further federal or criminal case. we'll have to see what other information as it pertains to motive will come out of this, chris. obviously very disturbing details that got worse since he initially started reporting on this. tom winter, thank you for that. frank figliuzzi, among the people we heard from were the fbi. again, we're getting early indications of anti-semitic writings and family involvement here.

beyond a motive, we don't want to speculate on anything. what are they looking for, what do they want to know in this investigation? >> there will be a lot of aspects that attempt to answer some unanswered questions. for example, she's had some priors with law enforcement. prior engagement, even what sounds like a baker act, emergency detention for mental health reasons, and they'll go back and see, is there anything that should have precluded her from possessing a weapon. federal and texas law say if you have been convicted of a felony, for example, you should not lawfully possess a weapon. but there is an exception in texas for five years after sentencing. in a quick scan of her rap sheet, i don't see a felony there, but i'll take another look at it. the other question they'll ask is, was there a way for people to have known that she was on the path to violence? was she leaking as experts call it, was she leaking her grievances? was there reason to believe she

was training or acquiring new weapons, talking about hurting herself or others, and they'll look at the tape and video tape at the church, and saying the initial entrance, passing a security officer, was there something there that should have caused concern, a trench coat, a bag, that kind of thing security officers are trained to watch for. look, we're at a point in society where multiple armed off duty police officers are hired to secure our houses of worship. they did their job. the question moving forward is how do we mitigate the need for all of those people. >> and we heard an official say churches, synagogues, mosques there are going to need extra support right now. frank figliuzzi, thank you. they are translating what we heard earlier. we will go back to it as more new information comes to us. but that's going to do it for us this hour. our coverage continues with "katy tur reports" right n