7-year-old girl killed after white man pulls alongside black family's car and opens fire

[Soph0571]

Police in Texas are seeking a white man who pulled alongside a black family’s car and opened fire, fatally shooting a 7-year-old girl.

The family of five was leaving a Walmart parking lot Sunday morning in the Houston area when a man driving a red pickup truck pulled up to the side of their car and started shooting, reported KHOU-TV.

Jazmine Barnes was killed instantly, and her mother LaPorsha Washington was shot in the arm. Another girl was injured by shattered glass, and two sisters were unharmed.

The 30-year-old Washington was expected to recover from her wound.

Authorities described the suspect as a bearded white man in his 40s, and he remains at large.

[link:https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/7-year-old-girl-killed-white-man-pulls-alongside-black-familys-car-opens-fire/|

Poor little mite. And the people that have sought to heighten tensions to the point that someone thinks this OK will never take responsibility for how their rhetoric leads to violence....

[LittleGirl]

1. O M G

That poor family. RIP little girl.

[olegramps]

18. KKK rides again. Trump has open up the flood gates of hatred. The racists' awaited Messiah.

[cwydro]

80. Um, the guy they arrested is black.

DU loves to jump to conclusions- one thing you cam count on here.

[mercuryblues]

91. Not jumping to conclusions

The police described him as a white male, in his 40's, with a beard in a red pickup truck.

https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/we-will-find-you-deputies-looking-for-man-who-shot-killed-7-year-old-in-ne-harris-co/285-625412626

[pintobean]

92. I can't find the part

where they said that the suspect was a KKK racist, motivated by hatred.

[cwydro]

95. I know, right?

And wearing a MAGA hat, no doubt.

Can you imagine how many threads there would be right now if they’d arrested a white man?

People just hate when their narrative is destroyed. I hate hypocrisy.

[olegramps]

94. I sure did jump the gun. It appears that it was type misguild revenge killing.

[pintobean]

97. And, you're the only one with the guts to admit it.

[Stuart G]

2. Why would anyone do that? Nothing else to say..

[iluvtennis]

4. Cuz they are the acist and feel emboldened under Trump to do so.

Hope the Walmart cameras have his ass on tape

[Mr. Quackers]

6. Texas is a brutal place

in a lot of ways.

Fucking sick fucking fuck.

[MagickMuffin]

54. THIS COULD HAPPEN ANYWHERE . . . . AND DOES

Texas has nothing to do with any of this.

Do you know how many people move here because Texas is a great state???

Perhaps this killer moved here from California or New York or any other place on this planet.

Texas is just Texas. The people living here make it as you say brutal.

[atreides1]

56. What makes Texas great?

[MagickMuffin]

57. Everything

with the exception of the republicon party, but hey they are everywhere just like racists they embrace!!!

[cwydro]

70. Thank you.

I hate region bashing.

[Mr. Quackers]

71. I did my time in Texas

I've never lived everywhere where each cop seemed like it was his personal ambition to jam you up.

Brutal.

Don't get me started on the lack of health care for the poor and uninsured.

I've lived in blue states where, if you were brought in the ER unable to walk, had one paralyzed arm, medical hardware hanging out of your body, a fresh trach hole, and gangrene, they would admit you and give you medical treatment.

Not so in Houston.

Brutal.

[Lonestarblue]

3. Racism is destroying our democracy.

Far too many people like to claim that the US is a Christian nation, but it is not. I have seen nothing in the Bible that proclaims white people to be superior to everyone else on the planet or that urges hatred and ill treatment of people of color or those who are different from white people. The closest excuse is that the “curse of Ham” means that black people are inferior “servants” to white people (a claim disputed by Biblical scholars). Indeed, the whole doctrine of Christianity is based on a Jewish man, most likely with the same brown features as others in the Middle East, not the blue-eyed blonde many Christians like to follow.

Racism is getting worse here and around the world. We need to somehow change the story, which will not happen until Trump is out of office. Even then, racism may just go underground again. Perhaps we need a course in schools on the origins and purposes of racial bias and how damaging it is to a free society.

[ck4829]

26. Indeed

[MikeIsInProcess]

31. Not a Christian nation?

Let’s not pretend that Christianity has meaningful standards. It was ambiguous enough to be compatible with 1930s Germany, an overwhelmingly Christian (and educated and culturally literate) nation. It was ambiguous enough to be compatible with the Confederacy, and was compatible enough with the THREE major denominations that split over slavery and formed Southern conferences (one of which still exists today). It was ambiguous enough to be compatible with Martin Luther and his horrific statements on Jews (and on reason itself, by the way). The KKK and other groups still feel that Christianity is perfectly compatible. There’s a reason they burn *crosses*.

There was Christianity in abundance on both sides of the Mason Dixon line. The ambiguous religion was apparently helpless to resolve our great dispute regarding that peculiar institution, and in the end the problem was eliminated (as minimally as possible) by superior firepower, with many Christians not forgiving such outrage even to this day. The institution was formerly killed, the underlying prejudices remained.

(And to be clear, on the issue of slavery I wouldn’t say that the Bible was particularly ambiguous: it speaks in strong affirmation of the institution, a point that Confederates thundered from their pulpits about as often as there were listeners gathered.)

It seems to be some form of idealism that there are meaningful standards involved here.

Christianity is as Christianity does.

I’m happy to argue that this is not a Christian nation, but racism isn’t the reasoning I’d use.

[Blue_true]

37. Slavery in America was justified by calling on Christianity.

My family is pretty much devout Christian, although not the evangelical type (moderate or rightwing) and they are nice people, but Christianity has been at the forefront of history's worse atrocities.

[MikeIsInProcess]

45. To be fair ...

it has also been at the forefront of various successes. Both the abolitionist and pro-slavery movements had a lot of Christian support.

It’s ambiguous, which causes it to be, for the most part, a reflection of the people who believe it. They’re able to find/emphasize whatever message they like.

When we were slave-owners, we found slavery in Holy Writ. Now that we’re not, effectively we can no longer find this message (though honest people will acknowledge that the verses remain). Strange how that works.

It’s a reflection of ourselves, good and bad.

If there were a god, he should be able to pop over and resolve all this ambiguity. It’s certainly a less bloody plan than permitting disputes to be addressed by 750,000 dead (in the case of the Civil War).

But here we are.

[Blue_true]

49. Reasonable points. nt

[DBoon]

32. "a claim disputed by Biblical scholars"

since when has this ever mattered?

[mickswalkabout41]

101. These words moved me when they were spoken. They still move me today

“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it.”


― Stephen Colbert

[Bettie]

5. WTF?

What is wrong with people? Never mind, I know the answer.

[maddiemom]

30. Ever wonder why Barack Obama is "black"...

and the Duchess of Sussex (Meghan Markle) is biracial? It has always puzzled me.

[pazzyanne]

38. Great observation, maddiemom!

I have wondered the same thing.

[Bettie]

51. Yeah, I wonder that

now that you mentioned it!

[Igel]

61. Collect data.

There's a fairly clear pattern to "black," "biracial", and derogatory terms like "passing".. Look at how easily the person slips from culture to culture, how people want to identify with the person (and the person wants others to identify with him/her), and how the person self-identifies. Note that there's a difference between when the person is minority/majority biracial and minority/minority biracial. It's complicated by application of the one-drop rule, which is still very present on both right and left for slightly different reasons. The media use the terms a bit differently from, say, how undergrads that are black-Asian or Asian-white use it--for some it's virtually a pretension, "Look at me, I have two cultures, unlike you, with (n)one."

Also look early in Obama's campaign, where things like O'Bama weren't unusual. Early on, his biracial/multicultural background was highlighted, but that faded as he became more and more "authentically African-American".

The data are there, but it's sort of a nuisance to remember it all and to step out of one's own skin, so to speak, to stop imposing one's own judgments on it and see how a range of people actually use the words and in what contexts. It's a social thing, so there are a lot of contrasts to account for all the data. It could be a short monograph. The first step is IDing the oppositions, the contrasts, and see how they pattern.

[obamanut2012]

64. Racists do not call Meghan Markle "biracial"

They call her at best "black," but usually the same racist slurs used against Obama and Mobama. Or wear racist brooches in front of the Duchess like Princess Michael of Kent did.

[tblue37]

65. Perhaps because his wife, daughters, MIL, BIL, and other publicly visible family members

are noticeably black, while hers, except for her mother, are white. Also, his skin is darker than hers.

Furthermore, he identifies as black.

And of course the right wingers harped nonstop on his being black.

[exboyfil]

7. You want some stomach churning comments

Go to the Fox News report and read the comments.

[yardwork]

20. And there is the evidence that this wasn't a random unprecedented event.

These acts of murder - and the comments from people who agree with murder - show us what our country is. We need to face it.

Thank you for mentioning the comments. This is who we are.

[Initech]

62. Fox News, talk radio and social media have brought out the worst of us.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Racist terrorism. . . . nt

[Stuart G]

9. I sure hope they catch him..my guess is they will WTF??

[getagrip_already]

11. Sure, how many.....

How many Red pickup trucks, with trump and racists bumper stickers and confederate flags, can there be in TX? (hint, a LOT).

With any luck, he was in the walmart at some point and they have good video and maybe a charge/debit card to match it to.

[smirkymonkey]

13. I hope they do and I hope he spends the rest of his miserable life in prison.

What kind of coward open fires on a car full of children? It's just sick!

[Kurt V.]

16. i saw the sheriff on TV. "we will find you"

[Chemisse]

10. So sad. That poor family.

[amuse bouche]

12. Guns and right wing assholes are everywhere.

[Blue_true]

42. That is why I don't react to hostile driver in traffic.

And if I bump into someone, I apologize.

[Rory McRory Fitzrory]

14. Awaiting Trump's Excuses and False Equivalencies

Luckily for me, I've already puked.

[groundloop]

21. Yeah, I can already imagine his "there are two sides to this story" bullshit.

This is pure fucking evil, made more mainstream by hatred being spewed by the asshole currently occupying the White House.

[Larrybanal]

22. excuses?

he will never even mention this..it is his base and will not be challenged

[Blue_true]

46. Yeah, he won't mention it.

When Molly Tibbetts was raped and murdered by a illegal immigrant, Trump was all over that, even as her family was preaching fairness and inclusion. But several weeks later when a white man raped and murdered a former NCAA golfer in the very same state, not a peep from Trump. The man is pure garbage, a maggot of a human being (I apologize to maggots for putting them down).

[ck4829]

50. Yep, not a Mexican or a Muslim... doesn't care, his supporters don't care either

[ananda]

15. So what will this poor mentally ill soul get?

A strong tongue lashing and a visit to the psychiatrist?

A couple of months in jail?

...

[SCantiGOP]

66. Probably life in prison

or the death penalty.

[Kurt V.]

17. .

[AllyCat]

19. What in the actual hell?

Guns and racists. Another bad and deadly mix.

My heart weeps for her and her family.

[democrank]

23. Rest in peace, precious little child.

So heartbreaking.......

[ck4829]

24. Sick psycho terrorist

[dalton99a]

25. Bearded 40s white man wearing a red hoodie and driving a red 4-door pickup

Last edited Mon Dec 31, 2018, 03:02 PM - Edit history (1)

Betcha he has a red hat to match

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/Gunman-at-large-after-killing-8-year-old-leaving-13498358.php

[IronLionZion]

27. Economic anxiety

Obama killed off the oil jobs in Texas so the white guy is the real victim here. He needs to be coddled and pandered to.

[pintobean]

28. "The motive for the attack is unknown."

The motive for the attack is unknown. Detectives are trying to determine whether the shooting was targeted or random.

The suspect is described as a white male in his 40s with a beard. The vehicle was described as a red pickup truck. No information was available on a license plate, or make and model of the truck.

The shooter is described as armed and dangerous, and for now, anonymous.

"Someone who does something like that will eventually talk about it, and we need anyone with information to come forward," said HCSO Major Jesse Razo. "I urge whoever did this, turn yourself in, because we will find you."

https://abc13.com/girl-7-fatally-shot-in-car-as-her-mother-left-walmart/4990333/

I say we wait for the facts, like the police are doing, before we declare a motive.

The really sad thing is, kids often get shot when adults decide to settle things with guns. Race is very rarely the motive.

[ProfessorPlum]

34. "Race is very rarely the motive"

Race is the motive in 100% of racial hate crimes. Until you know what this incident was, you shouldn't comment on the likelihood of anything.

[dalton99a]

40. If the shooter knew the family and followed them to the store at 7 am,

we would have known that by now.

This sounds more like a MAGA crime

[pintobean]

85. ...

[ProfessorPlum]

98. way to miss the point entirely

the point is that statistics can't really be applied to a single instance. If you had 150 shootings, you'd be justified in using percentages to guess what kind of instances they were. With a single specific shooting, percentages are useless. The event will be whatever it happens to be, regardless of whether it is a rare thing or a common thing.

And that we should wait to find out what kind of an event it was before we start predicting anything.

[pintobean]

99. Maybe you should read post #28 again

in it's entirety, not just the line you took issue with.

[ProfessorPlum]

100. i read it, and agree with most of it

I don't think we actually have much of a disagreement, just that statistics about shootings are a true, but possibly irrelevant, thing to talk about with regard to this particular incident.

Like you, I am glad this wasn't a racial hate crime, and I feel terrible for the family.

[Blue_true]

48. Such a strange post by you.

Why do you assume the someone in the vehicle with the Black family had a gun. You say wait, but you make some pretty reaching assumptions.

I think that is may be possible that adults had words inside the store, but in no way does that justify shooting at people.

[pintobean]

59. I made no such assumption.

I have no idea how you get that.

[LanternWaste]

55. What leads you to allege " Race is very rarely the motive..."?

[pintobean]

78. Reality

And, it doesn't appear to be the motive in this case.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said early Sunday morning that a 20-year-old man had been charged with capital murder for the killing of Jazmine Barnes, the 7-year-old who was fatally shot inside a moving car near Houston last month when she and her family went out to get coffee.

Contrary to previous reports from the authorities that the gunman was a white man, the man who was arrested and charged — Eric Black Jr. — is black, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office said Sunday. The sheriff’s office also said that there could be other suspects. Investigators do not believe that Jazmine or her family were targeted, and that they were “possibly shot as a result of mistaken identity,” the sheriff’s office said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/06/us/jazmine-barnes-arrest.html

Link to tweet

[cwydro]

84. Looks like it wasn't the motive in this case.

Hmm?

[GusBob]

82. "I say we wait for the facts"

Good idea

[PatSeg]

29. He fired on a woman and children?

The racism is bad enough, but he took it out on the most vulnerable people he could find. The surviving children will live with PTSD the rest of their lives. Hopefully this man will be found and brought to justice, though nothing will ever undo the pain and loss his hatred and ignorance has caused.

[uponit7771]

39. Yep, bout where this country is at ... the M$M will fight tooth and nail to keep this from being ...

... called racially motivated if it is.

[PatSeg]

69. Yeah

Maybe they could call it a war on women and children shopping and riding in cars!

[cwydro]

87. Looks like no racism involved.

DU will now lose interest in this young girl receiving justice. Same old story.

[polmaven]

33. Horrible!!

[yodermon]

35. HOW IS THIS NOT WALL-TO-WALL NONSTOP SATURATION COVERAGE??? RACIST DRIVE BY SHOOTER AT LARGE!?!!

WTF MEDIA

[dalton99a]

41. I hope they're working on a sketch of the suspect

[pazzyanne]

36. The trump administration has made it okay to declare war on children!

This type of thing is NEVER OKAY!

[eleny]

43. Terrorism

[oasis]

63. Exactly! nt

[IronLionZion]

67. White people can't be terrorists

especially when using guns to murder people. The media has established that enough times. Don't forget that white people never have a political agenda, especially while posting on a political discussion board.

[eleny]

75. Check

[LuckyCharms]

44. I'm thinking they will find this guy by the end of the day.

I certainly could be wrong...but he will be caught soon I think.

[WePurrsevere]

47. What kind of lowlife scum shoots at a woman and 4 girls...

between the ages of 6 & 15?

My heart goes out to all of the loved ones of Jasmine but especially the ones who were in the car and will have to deal with this trauma and murder the rest of their lives.

I hope they find the murderer quickly and that justice is done.

RIP little one.

[MoonRiver]

52. MAGaT scum have been given free reign to kill, even children!

R.I.P. little one...

[pdsimdars]

53. Bring back public hangings for people like that.

Maybe the others would get the message that we don't support their hate.

[HipChick]

58. Imagine a bearded black male opening fire on a white family

and killing 7yr old white girl....

[Ilsa]

68. Trump would be screaming about

Locking up every black man in the US, and executing the ones that drive the same kind of vehicle.

[canetoad]

60. An observation

As this violence happened at 7am.... I'm up and about very early in the morning to walk the dogs. When I run into other folk at that time, I quickly get a feel for whether they are fellow early risers, or they are on their way home from an all-nighter of drugs and/or drinks.

[Meowmee]

72. Horrific

Rip😿

[raccoon]

73. Too bad the family wasn't armed. :SARCASM: nt

[cwydro]

74. They'll catch him.

I have no doubt.

[dalton99a]

76. More details:

https://abc13.com/mom-says-daughters-killing-near-walmart-random-and-intentional/4996175/

Houston mom says man 'intentionally' killed 7-year-old daughter while leaving Walmart
Updated 2 hrs 42 mins ago

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- LaPorsha Washington, mother of Jazmine Barnes, is revealing new details about the alleged attack that killed her daughter on Sunday morning.

Jazmine, 7, and her mother were shot as they were going to Joe V's to get coffee Sunday morning. Washington's three other daughters were in the car too. They had just passed Walmart when a car pulled up.

Washington told ABC13 about her daughter's final moments.

"As I turned around and looked back at the street, I heard shots start firing and they came through my window, broke my glass, and hit me in my arm. They sped off in front of us and the truck slowed down and continued to fire as he was in front of us. It was not fair. It was not fair. He intentionally killed my child for no reason. He didn't even know her, he didn't know who she was."

After the shooting was over, one of her other daughters made the devastating discovery.

"She said, 'Momma, Jazmine's not moving. She's not talking.' I turned around and my 7-year-old was shot in the head."

The Harris County Sheriff's Office is asking all residents in the area around Wallisville Road near the E. Sam Houston Parkway to check their surveillance videos to help find clues that may lead to Jazmine's killer.

"My baby comes and asks me, 'Where's my sister? Is she coming back?' She's only six-years-old," said Washington.

The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with the expenses the family may need.

The motive for the attack is still unknown as detectives are trying to determine whether the shooting was targeted or random.

Anyone with information is asked to call 713-274-9100 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS. You can also make an anonymous tip online at www.Crime-Stoppers.org.

[oberliner]

77. Capital Murder Charge Filed in Jazmine Barnes Investigation

Harris County Sheriff's Office homicide investigators have filed a capital murder charge against Eric Black Jr. (DOB: 10/10/1998) for the Dec. 30 shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes.

Investigators identified Black as a suspect based on a tip.

Subsequent investigation revealed evidence that corroborated the tip, and Black was taken into custody in East Harris County without incident.

Black then admitted to taking part in the shooting. Investigators are continuing to pursue evidence that could possibly lead to other suspects being charged in this case.

https://local.nixle.com/alert/7029206/

[GusBob]

79. I am confused. The shooter was a black guy?

If this is true, the question is WTF?

And the reckoning is: don’t jump to conclusions

[oberliner]

81. There is going to be a press briefing today at 2PM

Hopefully they will be able to answer those questions.

Link to tweet

[cwydro]

83. I wondered at the time how they could know he was a white guy with blue eyes.

Someone is shooting at you and you can see the color of their eyes? No way.

We’ll likely hear no more about the despicable shooting of this little girl - not here on DU anyway.

[GusBob]

86. I think it has been shown

That the testimony of witnesses can be flawed. Cops judges and lawyers will tell you this.

Perhaps that is the case here, and that sort of thing should be remembered and discussed

[cwydro]

88. Yes, and I'm quite sure the cops were aware that description could not be right.

In the video, you can see how dark it was at the time.

Add in being shot at, and there’s just no way anyone would have a valid description.

[GusBob]

89. Well maybe the description was right

But it was not the shooter who they described but some other guy?

[oberliner]

90. Yet they put that description out there

[uncle ray]

93. what would happen if it was reported as a black on black crime? answer below:

[cwydro]

96. I've a feeling they knew what the real story was from the get-go.

They said several times they were not ruling anything out.

Remember Susan Smith. They put her description of the “perpetrators” out there too.

[Maru Kitteh]

105. Those cases couldn't possibly be any more different. Smith was covering her own crime

Smith made her assailants up out of thin air. These traumatized victims of crime gave an honest description of what they believed they saw and we all know how incredibly unreliable the descriptions of traumatized people can be. Experts are saying this description is probably the first person they saw after the event.

Your comparison to Susan Smith is heavily flawed. Beyond dead children and the existence of police renderings, the circumstances bear almost no similarities.

[Joe941]

102. I might be in the minority here, but...

I wish these stories would leave race out of it unless it is clearly a hate crime - and in that case they should just flat out say a race related hate crime. Instead the story tip toes around the issue making suggestions. It just stokes bad race relations which is not cool.

[Bonx]

103. Awful. Hope that racist white bastage gets punished, and soon!

[Codeine]

104. Ahem. nt

[hexola]

106. Looks like Shaun King has some splainin' to do

Family of man wrongfully accused by activist Shaun King in Jazmine Barnes' shooting speaks out

https://abc13.com/family-of-wrongfully-accused-man-receiving-violent-threats/5032056/

Photos of her uncle were widely circulated starting last Friday. In a now-deleted Twitter post, activist Shaun King, who has one million followers, posted Cantrell's mugshot and wrote, "We've had 20 people call or email us and say he is a racist, violent (expletive) and always has been. Just tell me everything you know."

As a white man with blue eyes, he resembles the sketch the Harris County Sheriff's Office released last week. Even his niece was afraid it was him.

"I'm not going to lie, I teared up," said Cantrell.