It was easy to believe. A 7-year-old black girl had been shot to death while riding in a car with her mother and three sisters. Witnesses described the possible assailant as a white man. Immediately racism was suggested as the likely motive. And why not? White separatists seem emboldened these days. The FBI says hate crimes are up in America.
But now an apparent confession suggests Jazmine Barnes murder isnt one of them. Does that make her death any less of a tragedy? Only if weve accepted the solemn drumbeat of news reports involving child gun deaths as predictable background noise.
Add Jazmines name to a long list of innocent children killed when gunfire erupts where they are supposed to feel safe outside their home, in places of worship, at school, or riding in the car with their mom to the store. Thats what Jazmine was doing when she was shot Dec. 30 in northeast Houston. I turned around and my 7-year-old was shot in the head, said Jazmines mother, LaPorsha Washington, who was shot in the arm.
In a hail of glass and bullets, a young girl with a big laugh who loved purple and playing dress up was gone. Six days later police arrested a suspect who implicated an accomplice. Neither Eric Black Jr. nor Larry Woodruffe is white. Black reportedly told Harris County authorities the suspects shot into the wrong car thinking it belonged to someone else.
That eyewitnesses got it wrong isnt surprising. The Innocence Project says eyewitness misidentification is the greatest contributing factor to wrongful convictions.
Police said an unidentified white man in a red truck recorded by surveillance video was not a suspect, but that didnt convince everyone. Theyre going to have to prove this to me, because I know how they can do to cover themselves, said Juanita Bell.
Such mistrust of police can make a community more dangerous. Add too many guns and you have besieged neighborhoods resembling the Wild West.
The Brady Campaign says eight children and teens die from gun violence every day in America. Among them the baby and two other young children killed last week in Texas City by their father, who had a history of domestic abuse.
Though Jazmines murder may not be race-related, thats not a license for complacency.
Ending racism requires changes in the heart encouraged by leaders who set an example. Ending gun violence merely requires common sense. Congress could pass stricter gun purchase laws. Texas could join the states with extreme risk laws that limit gun access for people with histories of violence.
Race hatred may draw more headlines, but any childs life cut short by a bullet deserves action.
