A 20-year-old man has been charged with capital murder in the death of Jazmine Barnes, the seven-year-old who was killed when a man in a pickup truck fired into her family’s car as they went to get coffee.
Eric Black Jr was taken into custody after being identified as a suspect based on a tip and has admitted to taking part in the shooting, the Harris county sheriff’s office said in a statement.
On Saturday, hundreds of people rallied in support of Jazmine’s family and to demand justice, in the parking lot of a Walmart close to the shooting scene. The girl’s mother, LaPorsha Washington, who was driving the car and was shot in the arm, expressed confidence the killer would be found and gratitude for the outpouring of public help.
“We’re going to find him no matter what corner we have to turn, no matter what rock we have to look under,” she said. “We’re going to find you, man.”
Washington and her four daughters were driving about 15 miles east of downtown Houston at about 6.50am last Sunday when they were attacked for no apparent reason. Jazmine, who loved music and had ambitions of becoming a teacher, was shot in the head and died at the scene.
Some activists and the family, who are black, believed the unprovoked nature of the crime in a part of Harris county known for racial tensions pointed to the possibility of a racially motivated attack. The sheriff’s office released a sketch of a suspect, a white man in his 30s or 40s.
“We do believe that it was racially motivated in part because our nation at this moment is a highly racially charged society,” S Lee Merritt, the family’s attorney, told reporters last week.
But Black, the suspect, is African American and the sheriff’s office said the shooting appears to be a case of mistaken identity.
“At this time,” it said, “investigators do not believe Jazmine’s family was the intended target of the shooting.”
On Twitter, Merritt wrote: “It is difficult to understand how at least four independent witnesses mistook two black male suspects for one older white suspect. However, it is imaginable that witnesses confused a fleeing bystander for the actual shooter.”
Ed Gonzalez, the sheriff, said in a statement: “Our work is not finished, but I believe the people of Harris county can take comfort in knowing we have made great progress.”
On Sunday, Gonzalez said authorities were still investigating and added: “It does not appear it was related to race.” The sheriff said authorities had identified two suspects and both were African American. He would not say if the second suspect was in custody.
Gonzalez said a person in a red truck whom authorities had been seeking appears to have just been a witness.
Amid national attention on the case, a $100,000 reward for finding the killer was offered and a GoFundMe page has raised more than $76,000 for the family’s expenses. Jazmine’s funeral is scheduled for Tuesday.