What did race have to do with this story capturing national attention?
The police said that they believe that both the white male and the red pickup the girls in the car saw were real, but probably belonged to an innocent bystander who sped away during the confusion of the shooting. Eric Black and the alleged shooter, they say, were trying to retaliate against someone they had gotten into an argument with earlier, and they misidentified the car Jazmine Barnes was in. The police say they think the shooting was a case of mistaken identity. This week, the police have charged two suspects, Larry Woodruffe, the alleged shooter, and Eric Black Jr., the alleged driver. So that, in combination with a police sketch of the suspect, created a real fear that this was a racially motivated attack.īut we now know that the suspected shooter was black And The New York Times reports that there was another still unsolved shooting in 2017 in the same area that witnesses say was committed by a white man in a Ford pickup. The other girls in the car during the shooting said the gunshots came from a red pickup truck driven by a white male. But Jazmine, who was 7, was shot in the head and died at the scene. Her mother was shot in the arm but survived.
Gene Demby: Jazmine Barnes was in a car with her mother and three sisters on Dec. National Police In Houston Charge Suspect With Murder In Death Of 7-Year-Old Jazmine Barnes
