Suspects Arrested in Shooting Death of 7-Year-Old Jazmine Barnes

CNN reports Texas police have made an arrest in the shooting death of Jazmine Barnes. 

Eric Black Jr, 20, will be formally charged with capital murder tomorrow morning in connection with the 7-year-old girl’s death. 

Police suspect that Black was driving the getaway car in the drive by shooting, and he was caught after a routine traffic stop for not using his turn signal. 

Black was pulled over for not using his turn signal and was initially arrested for marijuana possession, according to details released in an affidavit in a Harris County court this morning. 

Once Black was in custody, investigators discovered he had also been identified by an anonymous tipster as one of two suspects rumored to be involved in the shooting death of the second grader. 

He confessed to homicide investigators that he drove the vehicle used in the shooting when a man in the passenger seat opened fire, and told police the gun used in the case was still in his home. Officers found a 9mm pistol at the suspects home that was found to be consistent with the shell casing recovered from the crime scene. 

Authorities have also arrested Larry Woodruffe, 24 in connection with the case but have not revealed any details regarding his involvement. 

Black’s arrest changed the direction of the investigation as police initially believed the suspect they were looking for fit a entirely different description. 

Based on the descriptions from Jazmine’s mother LaPorsha Washington and three sisters originally, the police sketch distributed to the media depicted a man believed to be white and in his 40’s. 

An attorney for the Barnes family told CNN that the arrest “was welcome news to the family. At the same time, it was a major shock to the family.”

-blogged by @honeygrip