Man authorities believe shot black girl charged with murder

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas authorities filed a capital murder charge Tuesday against a black man they believe fired the bullet that killed a 7-year-old black girl in a drive-by shooting her family initially believed was racially motivated.

Prosecutors believe 24-year-old Larry D. Woodruffe killed Jazmine Barnes on Dec. 30 as she and her family drove to a grocery store in Houston.

The driver of the SUV Woodruffe rode in, 20-year-old Eric Black Jr. has also been charged with capital murder. Both suspects remain jailed.

Woodruffe was charged as Jazmine's funeral took place this afternoon, attended by hundreds of people at a Houston church. The girl's killing prompted an outpouring of support for her family from celebrities and ordinary people across the country.

Prosecutors say Woodruffe and Black mistakenly thought they were attacking people they'd fought at a club hours earlier when they shot at Jazmine and her family.

The family had described the shooter as a white man driving a red pickup truck, prompting concerns that her death was a hate crime.

Based on the family's description, the Harris County Sheriff's Office circulated a composite sketch of a white man possibly being the shooter. But the sheriff's office later received a tip from civil-rights activist Shaun King that sent the case in a new direction. The tip implicated Woodruffe and Black in the shooting.

The sheriff's office corroborated the tip and took Black and Woodruffe into custody Saturday.