Arrest, Charges Filed In Shooting Death Of 7-Year-Old Texas Girl

A Texas man is arrested Saturday and charged in the death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes, who was shot and killed while riding in a car with her family in Houston.

Eric Black Jr., 20, was charged with capital murder and appeared in court early Sunday morning, wearing handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit. He was ordered held without bail.

A prosecutor said Black admitted to driving the car when his passenger opened fire.

 Lee Merritt, an attorney for the Barnes family, told CBS News another suspect had also been arrested.

Authorities said they believe the suspects thought the car belonged to someone else and Jazmine's death was a case of mistaken identity.

"The intended targets were likely someone else, but instead they fired upon LaPorsha, Jazmine and her siblings in this case," Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a news conference Sunday. LaPorsha Washington is Jazmine's mother.

The shooting occurred December 30th in Houston when a car pulled alongside the vehicle carrying Barnes and her family at a stoplight and a gunman opened fire. Jazmine died of a gunshot wound to the head, and her mother was hit in the arm.

In the days following the shooting, Washington said she believed it was racially motivated. Her 15-year-old daughter, who was also in the car, initially said the shooter was a white man in a red truck, and police released an artist's sketch Thursday showing a thin, white man with a 5 o'clock shadow.

Black, the alleged driver, is African American. The full name of the alleged gunman is not yet known, but Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Sunday the individual is also African American.

In the press conference Sunday, Gonzalez said there was indeed a red truck at the stoplight when shots rang out, but said investigators now believe the person or people in the truck were nothing more than witnesses. He urged the unidentified driver of the truck to come forward.