A black man was arrested and charged with murder in the killing of a 7-year-old black girl in a drive-by shooting that authorities said Sunday appeared to be a case of mistaken identity, not a racially motivated attack, as her family feared.
Jazmine Barnes' family had described the gunman in the Dec 30 slaying as a white man driving a red pickup, and believed race played a role in the shooting.
But acting on a tip received by a civil rights activist, the sheriff's department zeroed in instead on Eric Black Jr, a 20-year-old black man who admitted he was driving a dark-coloured SUV from which a passenger opened fire, authorities said.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez cautioned that authorities were still investigating, but said: "At this point, it does not appear it was related to race."
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