HOUSTON (AP) - The Latest on a Houston-area shooting that killed a 7-year-old girl and injured her sister and mother (all times local):
5:45 p.m.
A Texas sheriff says he’s aware of claims by activists that a weekend shooting that killed a 7-year-old black girl was racially motivated but adds that it remains unclear what prompted the shooting and investigators are considering all possibilities.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Wednesday that his agency is not “tone deaf” to concerns that race played a role in the death of Jazmine Barnes. But he says the focus is on collecting evidence and developing leads, while a determination on motive will come later.
Houston activists said earlier that they believe the attack was racially motivated and pointed to an unsolved shooting in the area in 2017 in which a white suspect fired into a vehicle.
Jazmine was riding in a car Sunday with her family when a motorist described by authorities as a white, bearded man pulled alongside and fired on them.
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11 a.m.
Authorities are searching for a driver who fired several shots into a car carrying a family in the Houston area, killing a 7-year-old girl and wounding the child’s mother.
Investigators on Monday released a surveillance video image of a red, four-door pickup truck from which the driver fired gunshots Sunday morning.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez has declined to speculate on what prompted the driver to fire into the car carrying 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes, three of her sisters and her mother. Gonzalez says the shooting was “totally unprovoked.”
Jazmine’s mother suffered a gunshot wound to the arm and her 6-year-old sister was injured by shattered glass.
Jazmine’s father appeared with Gonzalez at a Monday news briefing. He pleaded with the public to help find the shooter.
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