WATCH: Houston Police Investigated What Pronouns To Use For Lakewood Church Shooter - 'Seriously Messed Up Priorities'

On Monday, the Houston Police Department held a press conference following the shooting at Joel Osteen's megachurch in Houston, Texas, by Genessee Ivonne Moreno, a man who identified as a woman. Authorities made it a point of the press conference to explain that they were using the correct pronouns for the shooter, those being she/her. The day before, Moreno entered Osteen's church with a young boy just before 2 PM and opened fire on congregants with an AR-15 that had a "Free Palestine" sticker on it. Moreno was able to get off a dozen shots, injuring a 57-year-old man, before being shot and killed by off-duty police officers.

Moreno, originally hailing from El Salvador, had a long criminal history, including assaulting a police officer in 2009 and forgery in 2010. Moreno was born a biological man with the name Jeffrey Escalante and was seen wearing a trench coat and a backpack when he entered the church. He entered the building just before the 2 PM all-Spanish service with a five-year-old boy who was injured and is currently in critical condition at a local hospital. The child is not expected to survive, as previously reported by the DC Enquirer.

While officers were busy attempting to determine the motivation behind the shooting, they also took the time to investigate what kind of pronouns to use when addressing the shooter. "So she utilized both male and female names, but through all of our investigations to this point, talking with individuals, interviews, documents, Houston police department reports, she has been identified this enter time as female, she/her," Houston PD explained. "And so we are identifying her as Genessee Moreno, Hispanic, female."

In response to the press conference, commentators online slammed the Houston Police Department, with Human Events Senior Editor Jack Posobiec writing, "WE MUST'NT OFFEND THE CHILD KILLER." X CEO Elon Musk also chimed in on the conversation, writing, "Seriously messed up priorities." Students For Trump Chair Ryan Fournier commented that the officer in question was doing a disservice to the uniform, "That cop isn't fit to wear the uniform. I mean that literally."

While Houston police seemingly spend a considerable amount of time determining what kind of pronouns the shooter used, the motive behind the shooting has yet to be determined. "I don't want to talk about her motivations because I don't know. Right?" Houston police chief Troy Finner explained following the shooting. "We may never know the full story. But the important message is we're going to stand together as a city. We're going to stand with this church today and the pastor to make sure that healing begins immediately."

The shooting is a tragedy, and officers should be focused on attempting to determine what led to this individual taking violent action against church congregants, not spending valuable time making sure they don't disrespect the deceased killer.

Houston PD ran an entire investigation to figure out which pronouns to use for the shooter at Lakewood Church: pic.twitter.com/Mmt7zhpiim

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 12, 2024