Man charged in Houston girl’s death
HOUSTON — A black man was arrested and charged with murder in the killing of a 7-year-old black girl in a drive-by shooting that authorities said Sunday appeared to be a case of mistaken identity, not a racially motivated attack, as her family feared.
Jazmine Barnes’ family had described the gunman in the Dec. 30 slaying as a white man driving a red pickup, and believed race played a role in the shooting.
But acting on a tip received by a civil rights activist, the sheriff’s department zeroed in instead on Eric Black Jr., a 20-year-old black man who admitted he was driving a darkcoloured SUV from which a passenger opened fire, authorities said.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez cautioned that authorities were still investigating, but said: “At this point, it does not appear it was related to race.”
Gonzalez said authorities have identified the second suspect, who is also black, but would not say whether the person was in custody.
At a court hearing early Sunday, prosecutors said a confidential source had contacted the sheriff by email and told him the killers had “shot the car by mistake,” thinking the vehicle Jazmine was in was someone else’s that they had seen earlier in the night.
The sheriff said there was a red truck nearby at the time of the shooting, but the driver did not appear to have been involved, and Jazmine’s family apparently mistook the driver for the gunman.
After the shooting, a composite sketch of a white man in a dark hood was widely circulated.