Southwest
Lakewood Church shooting: Woman with child in tow opens fire inside Joel Osteen's Texas megachurch
Two people were injured and one suspect was killed during a shooting at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church on Sunday afternoon, Texas authorities say.
During a press conference, police chief Troy Finner said that the shooting began at 1:53 p.m. It happened at around the time that the Spanish language church service was scheduled to start.
The suspect, who was a woman, entered the church with a long rifle. She was wearing a backpack and a trench coat, and was accompanied by a “small child, approximately 4 to 5 years old,” Finner said.
After she began shooting, off-duty officers at the scene “engaged” the woman and returned fire. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Police said that two people were injured, including a 57-year-old man who was shot in the leg. The child that the shooter came with was also injured and remains in critical condition.
Finner also disclosed that the suspect mentioned that she had a bomb.
“Once she went down, officers reported back to us that she threatened that she had a bomb,” the police chief explained. “So we searched her vehicle, our bomb squad, and also the backpack [she brought].”
“No explosives were found, but she was also spraying some type of substance on the ground.”
Police said the shooting appears to be isolated and they believe there is no further threat to the public.
During the press conference, senior pastor Joel Osteen thanked law enforcement and said that he was “devastated” by the shooting.
“We don’t understand why all these things happened, but we know God’s in control,” Osteen said.
“We’re going to continue to to move forward. There are forces of evil, but the forces that are for us, the forces of God, are stronger than that,” he continued. “So we’re going to keep going strong and just, you know, doing what God’s called us to do, lift people up and give hope to the world again.”
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The death of the shooter was first announced by Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez earlier that afternoon.
“Correction: shooter is down,” Gonzalez wrote on social media. “But it does not appear that@HCSOTexas deputies fired shots; other agencies fired.”
“We continue to assist in a methodical/thorough search of the complex.”
At around 2:10 p.m. CT, Gonzalez announced that there were “possible shots fired at/or around Lakewood Church.” Less than an hour later, Texas police confirmed that the scene was Lakewood Church.
Police later advised that anyone with missing family members should head to the “family reunification location” at Greenway Plaza’s Life Time Fitness gym.
Lakewood Church confirmed on X that there was a shooting and asked that users “please pray for Lakewood and our community.”
In a press release sent to local outlets, Governor Greg Abbott called the shooting “tragic.”
“Our hearts are with those impacted by today’s tragic shooting and the entire Lakewood Church community in Houston,” Abbott said. “Places of worship are sacred.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the Houston Police Department for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Curto contributed to this report.
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Southwest
7 states vote to protect abortion rights, 3 keep restrictions in place
Ten states voted directly on abortion-related measures Tuesday, with abortion advocates claiming seven victories.
Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Nevada and South Dakota all went to the polls on the issue, with the majority of the ballot measures seeking to amend efforts passed in Republican-led states whose leaders moved to restrict abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo the state’s near-total ban, one of the nation’s tightest restrictions, with an amendment that would allow lawmakers to restrict abortions past the point of a fetus’ viability – usually considered after 21 weeks, although there is no exact defined time frame.
Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado and Maryland and Montana, per The Associated Press. Montana voted to amend the state constitution to “expressly provide a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion.”
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Nevada voters also approved an amendment, but they’ll need to pass it again in 2026 for it to take effect.
Another measure, which bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes,” prevailed in New York. It does not contain the word “abortion,” but rather bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”
In Arizona, voters were asked to amend the state constitution to allow abortions through the 24-week mark. The measure enshrines a “fundamental right” to abortion before fetal viability, when a fetus has a “significant likelihood” of surviving outside the uterus.
The amendment replaces the current law that bans abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.
A long-dormant 1864 law, which predated Arizona’s statehood, had gone into effect in the Grand Canyon State after the repeal of Roe vs. Wade in 2022, thrusting the issue into the spotlight and leading to Tuesday’s vote. The law had no exceptions for rape and incest, only for the life of the mother, and was repealed in September.
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Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving existing restrictions in place.
Florida, home to more than 13 million registered voters, was the most populous state deciding on abortion measures. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed into law the Heartbeat Protection Act, which restricts most abortions after six weeks of gestation.
This year, Florida residents voted on Amendment 4, the Right to Abortion Initiative, which aimed to overturn that law by prohibiting measures that restrict abortion before viability. In Florida, constitutional amendments must get 60% of the vote, not a simple majority, to pass. Amendment 4 received majority support among voters but failed to meet the 60% threshold.
South Dakota voters’ defeat of its abortion measure prevents some regulations related to the health of the woman after 12 weeks. The Mount Rushmore State currently has a ban on abortion throughout pregnancy with some exceptions.
Nebraska passed a ballot amendment prohibiting abortion beyond the first three months of pregnancy.
Tuesday’s results ended a win streak for abortion-rights advocates who had prevailed on all seven measures that have appeared on statewide ballots since the fall of Roe.
A Fox News poll conducted this year found that a record-high number of voters now say they support legalizing abortion in some form, including two-thirds who said they supported a nationwide law that would guarantee abortion access for women.
Fifty-nine percent said they believe abortion should be legal in “all or most cases,” up from the previous high of 57% in September 2022.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace, Breanne Deppisch, Emma Colton and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Los Angeles, Ca
Rialto man found dead in remote San Bernardino County home
A murder investigation is underway after a Rialto man was found dead inside a home in a remote area of San Bernardino County earlier this week.
Deputies were called to a home in the 34400 block of Wilshire Road in Lucerne Valley regarding “suspicious circumstances” around noon on Tuesday, the S.B. County Sheriff’s Department stated in a news release Thursday.
“The reporting party was at the location and believed he saw a deceased person inside the home,” the Sheriff’s Department stated.
Responding deputies found a man, later identified as 26-year-old Anthony Zamora of Rialto, dead at the scene.
Homicide detectives were called to the scene to investigate the incident, which was described as a “PC 187 – murder” in the news release.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine the manner and cause of death.
Anyone with information was asked to call the Homicide Detail at 909-890-4904. Callers wishing to remain anonymous should contact We-Tip at 800-782-7463 or go to wetip.com.
Southwest
Border state Arizona backs having local law enforcement arrest suspected illegal immigrants
Voters in border state Arizona have approved Proposition 314, a measure that would allow local police to arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the state amid concerns over border security.
Proposition 314 makes it a state crime for people to illegally enter Arizona from Mexico outside official ports of entry, permitting local and state law enforcement officers to arrest them and state judges to order their deportations. Those who enforce the law would be shielded from civil lawsuits.
The proposal won’t go into effect immediately, requiring a similar law in Texas or another state to be in effect for 60 consecutive days before a violator can be prosecuted.
Republican lawmakers in Arizona argued the proposal would help secure the border after the Biden administration dealt with an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration.
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Opponents of the proposal argued it would harm Arizona’s economy and reputation, as well as lead to the racial profiling of Latinos.
As illegal border crossings exploded under the Biden administration, President-elect Trump made the issue one of his top focuses on the 2024 campaign trail.
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He has also pledged to terminate “every open borders policy of the Biden administration.”
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A Trump administration would also likely seek to restore the 2019 Remain-in-Mexico policy and bring back down the number of refugee admissions. On Monday, he announced an additional policy, promising to slap a 25% tariff on incoming goods from Mexico.
Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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