Boy injured in Osteen church shooting lost ‘portion of his frontal lobe’

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 263 points – Boy injured in Osteen church shooting lost ‘portion of his frontal lobe’
theguardian.com

Samuel Moreno-Carranza, age seven, was injured after his mother fired a rifle inside church and police responded, killing her

A boy who was shot in the head at celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s Houston megachurch on 11 February has lost “a portion of his frontal lobe” while recovering at the hospital, according to his grandmother.

In a Facebook post three days after the shooting, Walli Carranza said her seven-year-old grandson, Samuel Moreno-Carranza, “has lost a major part of what makes us who we are” after “half of his right skull [had] to be surgically removed during two surgeries done in less than 24 hours”. Samuel had endured “cardiac arrest multiple times, and no one can determine whether he has significant brain activity because his scalp tissue is too friable” to let doctors attach electroencephalogram wires to him, Carranza added in a post that doubled as a criticism of the US’s lack of meaningful gun control.

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Wow the article worked really really really hard not to tell you it was the police who shot the boy. It wasn't until near the last 2/3 of the report, and lookit:

Samuel – whose mother had brought him to the church – was struck in the head during the exchange of gunfire that killed Moreno. A 57-year-old man was also hit, in the hip.

It appears the only people injured in this were shot by the two off-duty officers. I'm not even saying those two are in the wrong, but i have a real problem with the way its reported here

I have questions about how necessary it was to fire at the woman in the first place.

•if she's in an empty lobby with her and her son, and two security officers, could they not have tried to negotiate and get the kid away first?

•Did security actually see "materials consistant with manufacturing explosives" inside her trenchcoat before firing, or is that something they alleged after they shot a 7yo in the head. There were no explosives found on her body or at home.

I know it's hard to judge these situations, but I feel like there could have been a resolution where the kid doesn't sacrificed by everyone involved.

The police opened fire after the mother did. It is notoriously difficult to negotiate with someone who is actively shooting - aside from needing absolutely every target to be in excellent cover, you have to make yourself heard over the gunfire.

How many rounds did the child fire before taking a police bullet to the brain?

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Have they said how many rounds the woman was able to get off before she was killed? I'm starting to wonder if the answer is 0.

I had to look around for any mention of it but i did finally find this.

Wearing a trench coat and backpack, she entered the converted sports arena between church services and opened fire in a hallway with an AR-platform rifle, Hassig said. One federal law enforcement source told CNN she fired around 30 bullets. (emphasis mine)

Two off-duty officers were at the church: a 28-year-old Houston Police Department officer and a 38-year-old agent with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, both with less than five years of service. The two officers engaged the shooter and she was fatally hit, the police chief said.

Source: CNN

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