7-Year-Old Son of Lakewood Church Shooter Lost Part of Frontal Lobe After Suffering Gunshot Wound to Head

The 7-year-old boy who was shot in the head during the Lakewood church shooting last Sunday lost part of his frontal lobe.

Samuel Moreno-Carranza, the son of the shooter, 36-year-old Genesse Moreno, “lost a big part of what makes us who we are…part of our frontal lobe,” his grandmother, Walli Carranza, shared in a Facebook post published Wednesday.

“Half of his right skull had to be surgically removed in two surgeries performed in less than 24 hours,” Carranza wrote. “He’s been in cardiac arrest multiple times and no one can tell if he has significant brain activity because the tissue on his scalp is too fragile to allow EEG wires to be attached.”

Wally Carranza.

AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi

The frontal lobe is “home to areas that govern thinking, emotion, personality, judgment, self-control, muscle and movement control, memory storage, and more,” according to the Cleveland Clinic.

The news comes days after Moreno, Samuel’s mother and Carranza’s daughter-in-law, opened fire last weekend between services at celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston.

Shortly before 2 p.m. on February 11, Moreno – armed with a long rifle and wearing a coat – entered the church with Samuel before opening fire, according to Houston police.

Two people were shot, Samuel, who was critically injured, and a 57-year-old man, who was shot in the leg and was in stable condition Sunday, according to Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.

Lakewood Church on Sunday February 18th.

AP Photo/David J. Phillip

After a shootout with two off-duty law enforcement officers working security in Lakewood, Moreno was also shot, police said. She died from her injuries. Want to keep up with the latest crime news? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for the latest crime news, coverage of ongoing trials and details on intriguing unsolved cases.

Finner said that “when she went down, the officers informed us that she threatened to have a bomb, so we searched her vehicle, our bomb squad, and also the backpack.”

“No explosives were found, but she also sprayed some kind of substance on the ground,” he added.

Lakewood Church Pastor Joel Osten.

Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle via AP

Moreno acted alone, according to Finner, who also notes that the motive for the shooting is unknown.

“I don’t want to talk about her motives because I don’t know,” the police chief said. “We may never know the whole story.”

Finner also said he could not confirm whether Moreno or the officers shot Samuel.

“I don’t want to speculate on that, but what I would say is that, unfortunately, and that woman, that suspect put that child in danger, I’m going to put the blame on her,” he said during the news conferences.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education