Police still can’t find 7 y/o Jazmine Barnes’ killer as an older shooting gains suspicion
After a 7-year-old Black girl, Jazmine Barnes, was fatally gunned down outside a Houston Walmart, police officials released video of the gunman driving a red pick up truck and are now asking the public to report any potential leads.The fatal shooting occurred last Sunday. According to the New York Times, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office describe the bearded gunman being a white man in his 30s or 40s with a hooded sweatshirt. The killer shot into Jazmine Barnes’ moving car with her mother driving and her three sisters were also passengers.
Barnes’ death rekindled a national civil rights conversation, as many believe her murder was racially motivated.
Barnes’ mother, LaPorsha Washington, and her daughters helped the police come up with a sketch of the gunman, helped the police come up with this sketch that was released to the public.
This is the man witnesses say murdered 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes on 12/30 as her family drove on the E. Sam Houston Pkwy frontage road at Wallisville Road. Thin white man, 30's-40's, in a red pickup. Call 713-221-6000 or @CrimeStopHOU at 713-222-TIPS #JusticeForJazmine #hounews pic.twitter.com/URR3w2Wxbm
— HCSOTexas (@HCSOTexas) January 3, 2019
“We’re not going to stop until we solve this case,” Harris County Sheriff Gonzalez said at a news conference.
Public support for the family circulated on Twitter via the hashtag, #JusticeForJasmine.
The family’s lawyer Lee Merritt and Shaun King, a well-known racial justice activist, have offered a financial reward for tips on the gunman that would lead to his arrest.
https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1080561556868329472
The New York Times reports that Merritt has received several tips since the reward’s announcement and has forwarded all of them to the Sheriff’s office.
“We are getting a lot of tips now,” Merritt said in an interview. “The word is out there.”
Merritt compared the fatal event with another shooting that occurred in August 2017. A’Vonte Willians was shot by an unknown white man in a pickup truck in the same area.
3. The shootings occurred in the exact same stretch of highway adjacent to the same Wal-Mart located in Humble,TX off Loop 8 and Wallisville. pic.twitter.com/KImtsjPy3F
— Lee Merritt (@MerrittForTexas) January 2, 2019
The police have been criticized for not taking the threat of white supremacist violence seriously to Black families.