Two Men Arrested In Killing of Jazmine Barnes

 

 

 

Two arrests have been made in the killing of 7 year old Jazmine Barnes in Houston, TX.  Eric Black Jr., 20, and Larry Woodruffe, 24, have both been charged with capital murder.  Police say the shooting was a case of mistaken identity after both men mistook the family’s car for that of someone they had gotten into an argument with at a club the night before.  Police say Black was the driver and Woodruffe fired the shots.

On the morning of December 30th 2018, the shooting occurred around 6:50am as LaPorsha Washington, was pulling out of a Wal-Mart parking lot in Cloverleaf, Texas onto a highway road when someone shot into their vehicle.  Jazmine was riding in a car with her mother and three sisters when she was shot in the head.  Washington was shot in the arm, the youngest was injured by shattered glass and the other two girls were physically unharmed.

The shooting was originally feared to be a hate crime because Jazmine’s mother, LaPorsha Washington, identified the shooter as a white male in his 30’s or 40’s with piercing blue eyes who was driving a red pickup truck.  Investigators distributed a sketch of the shooter based on Washington’s description and the killing was initially investigated as a possible hate crime.  Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez had said he was aware of these concerns and investigators looked into the possibility that race could have played a role.  Gonzalez declined to state a specific motive for the shooting before any arrests were made.

Police say they apprehended Black after receiving a tip from journalist and civil rights activist Shaun King that sent the investigation in a new direction.  The tip implicated two black men in the shooting.  Prosecutors allege that Black told investigators he was driving the SUV from which an unidentified passenger fired the shots.  Black implicated Woodruffe and he was arrested on an unrelated drug charge.  Woodruffe denied involvement, but his phone records put him “in close proximity” to the scene of the shooting, according to court documents.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said there was, in fact, a red pickup truck driven by a white man seen at a stoplight just before the shooting, but the driver didn’t appear to have been involved. The sheriff said it was dark, the shooting happened quickly, and the red truck was probably the last thing seen by Jazmine’s family. He said authorities believe Jazmine’s family has been truthful during the investigation.  Several other witnesses placed a red pickup truck at the scene during the shooting.

On Woodruffe’s now-deleted Instagram, a photo was posted after the deadly shooting of the co-defendants. In it, Woodruffe is showing off a fan of cash. Black is flashing gang signs.  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott retweeted Houston Police Officers Union President Joe Gamaldi saying, “There are too many gangs in Houston. We must expand the Texas Anti-Gang Task Force in Houston to clean our streets of this trash and restore safety.”

“The family wants to thank all of those that helped capture the suspects, all police agencies and the general public whose tips lead to their capture,” said Dr. James Dixon II of Community of Faith Church.