‘Part of us’: Death unites neighbors

Jocelyn Wolford pulled a sketch from her bag and placed it on the counter at Castro Graphics. She asked the owner if he had heard about Jazmine Barnes, the 7-yearold girl fatally shot not 10 miles away while in the car with her three siblings and mother.

Jazmine’s story spread across the nation following her death Sunday. But it struck with particular intensity in the northeast Harris County community, known informally as C.E. King, where the girl lived and attended the second grade at Monahan Elementary. Residents such as Wolford, who didn’t know Jazmine or her family, nonetheless felt moved by the tragedy.

The inexplicable death struck a chord: Jazmine Barnes could have been anyone else’s daughter, or grandchild, or niece.

“The little girl went to Monahan, which means she’s part of us,” said Gwen Malone, 68, a fixture in the neighborhood.

The suburban area, a sprawl of small, tidy subdivisions and chain restaurants in run-down strip malls and along busy streets, is a one-high school district, as Malone put it. Everyone goes to the homecoming parade. People watch out for each other.

Last year, 9,100 students attended the Sheldon Independent School District, of whom 21 percent were black, 71 percent were Hispanic and nearly 6 percent were white.

Barnes was shot as her mother, LaPorsha Washington, pulled out of the parking lot at the same Walmart where countless others in the neighborhood shop.

Chris Lmuth lives near it. He’s 27 and grew up in the area. He has talked about the incident in the past day or so with his friends and his uncle, and hoped to attend a rally planned in her memory this weekend.

The story wasn’t sitting right with anyone, Lmuth said. Killing a child was a sick, twisted act. He couldn’t shake the thought that his 8-year-old cousin might have been the victim.

“The way this happened, there’s no other way to describe it,” he said. “It’s basically a hate crime.”

Washington, who is African-American, has called the shooting a hate crime. The shooter is described as a white man.

When Devora Myles heard the story she broke down in tears, she said. She is a member of the Sheldon ISD school board, but spoke as a grandmother. Her granddaughter was in the same grade as Jazmine at Monahan. Kids that age have hardly begun their lives.

“It was scary; it was a scary thought,” she said. “We don’t want stuff like that happening here.”

Wolford woke up before 5 a.m. Thursday, thinking about it all. Her son is in third grade at Monahan. He said he remembered seeing Jazmine in the cafeteria.

Wolford, a hairdresser, was dreading Tuesday, when the reality of Jazmine’s absence would sink in with her classmates.

At the graphics store, groping for ideas, Wolford shared the Tshirt design she drew earlier on the wrinkled paper. She explained it to the graphics store owner, Salvador Castro. She envisioned the shirt having the words “Sheldon Strong” on the front — inspired by the “Houston Strong” theme after the hardship of Hurricane Harvey — and “JJ” on the back. Justice for Jazmine.

She wanted to make the T-shirts for the second-grade teachers at the school. Castro said he thought he would be able to help.

“I just knew I wanted to do something,” she told Castro, as her eyes began to well. “I have to do something.”