What we know about the Lakewood Church shooting in Texas

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday

Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US

Lakewood Church, home to famed pastor Joel Osteen’s congregation, draws more than 45,000 worshippers through its doors each week.

It’s one of the United States’ largest Christian churches, seating around 16,000 congregants in its auditorium at any given time.

Now, it’s also a crime scene after it became the sight of a terrifying shooting over the weekend.

On Sunday 11 February, worshippers were preparing to go into its Spanish-speaking service when police said a woman with a young child entered the church armed with a long rifle and opened fire.

Two officers confronted the shooter and she was killed in return fire.

The young child was also injured in the melee and remains in critical condition in hospital.

“It’s unfortunate that on the day we want to attend church and watch America’s number one sports event, we find ourselves gathered here to respond to this tragedy,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said after the incident.

While officials said the situation could have been a lot worse, the incident has left churchgoers and the community in shock.

As the investigation continues, Houston authorities are trying to uncover who the woman is and what motivated her to bring a gun into the place of worship.

Here’s everything we know about the Houston Lakewood Church shooting:

The shooting

Chief Troy Finner with the Houston Police Department told reporters at a news conference on Sunday that the woman, armed with a long rifle and thought to be around 30 to 35 years old, entered the west side of the megachurch at around 1.53pm on Sunday.

She was dressed in a trench coat and a backpack and was accompanied by a small child aged around four to five years old.

She began to fire, and two off-duty officers, one a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agent and the other a Houston police officer, engaged and struck the woman. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

Alan Guity, a longtime church member, said he was inside the church’s sanctuary before the Spanish service with his mother, who was working as an usher, when he heard gunshots.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom and I yelled, ‘Mom,’ ” he told the Associated Press.

Mr Guity and his mother both lay flat and prayed as the gunfire carried on. They remained there for around five minutes until they were told it was safe to evacuate, the outlet said.

“Places of worship. That’s what they are, and that’s what they will remain in our city,” Chief Finner said at the conference.

Auhtorites said that they believe it was an isolated incident with no further danger to the public, but there will be increased patrols in and around religious institutions of all faiths in the area.

Chief Finner said that when officers are involved in a shooting, investigations are conducted, and the officers will be placed on administrative duty.

“I want to commend those officers. She had a long gun, and it could have been a lot worse,” Mr Finner said. “But they stepped up, and they did their job, and I want to thank them for that.”

“It is certainly traumatic for the officers who have had to take a life and we worry about their mental health as well,” Fire Chief Samuel Peña also added.

The victims

The child who was with the shooter was injured in the incident and is currently in Texas Children’s Hospital in critical condition.

Officers are currently unclear at this stage how the child was injured. It is also unclear what relation the woman had to the young child.

When asked if officers had shot the boy, Chief Finner said if they had “that female, that suspect, put that baby in danger. I’m going to put that blame on her.”

Another victim, a 57-year-old man, was also shot in the leg and is seeking treatment in hospital but is believed to be in a stable condition.

The suspect

The identity of the woman has not yet been revealed by authorities, and due to the investigation being in very early stages, the motive remains unclear at this time.

“We may never know the full story,” Mr Finner said about her motivations to shoot up the megachurch.

Police said that, during the shooting, the suspect threatened that she had a bomb, but the bomb squad searched her white vehicle and backpack, and no explosives were found.

She also sprayed a substance, unidentified by police, on the ground, so the Houston Fire Department was called in to investigate that.

The Houston Fire Department also said that a hazmat team, a decon team and the bomb squad, were all at the scene to manage any consequences of the incident.

They have “not found anything that is of concern to our community or to this location”, and officials said further methodical search of the building would take place.

So far, authorities are treating this as an isolated incident with no further danger to the public.

The Texas megachurch

Lakewood Church is situated in the Compaq Centre, a venue so big it used to be the home of the NBA’s Houston Rockets.

The megachurch attracts more than 45,000 weekly visitors to its church, which includes a 16,000-seat auditorium and reaches even more worshippers on international broadcasts.

What may entice many worshippers is also pastor Joel Osteen, a successful television producer-turned-religious leader after his father, John Osteen, also a famed pastor, unexpectedly died, leading to Joel taking over as senior pastor at Lakewood Church in 1999.

Sunday, however, brought an unforeseen event that left the congregation devastated; Mr Osteen said that the incident had left him “kind of in a fog” but said his community will “stay strong”.

“We don’t understand why these things happen, but we know God is in control,” Osteen said.

“We are going to pray for the little five-year-old boy and the lady that was deceased, her family, and the other gentlemen,” he added.

The pastor said that he could have only imagined what would have happened if the incident had happened during the 11am service, as at the time of the shooting, the church was changing over services.

“Our community is devastated by today’s events and grateful for the swift actions of law enforcement. May the healing hands of God touch the lives of everyone involved and provide comfort during this difficult time,” Mr Osteen added in a statement later on.