Page 16 - The Culture Report

The Culture Report

Jazmine Barnes

Two men have finally been arrested in connection to the
murder of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes in Houston, Texas.
The case made headlines when a little after Christmas the
young girl was shot and killed as her mother, LaPorsha
Washington, was driving her children out of a parking
lot.

The murder was initially thought to be racially motivated
as the only person witnessed at the scene was a white
man who jumped in his truck and dashed after shots were
fired. An anonymous tip to activist and reporter Shaun
King, however, pointed police in the direction of Larry
Woodruffe, 24 and Eric Black Jr., 20.

Black Jr. was stopped and detained first. After questioning he gave up Larry Woodruffe as the shooter
and later explained what had happened that night. According to Black Jr., he and Woodruffe believed
Washington’s car to belong to men they had a previous altercation with at a club. Black Jr. drove while
Woodruffe fired the killing shots into the vehicle. The previously identified white suspect is now
described as someone who was simply trying to get away when they heard shots fired.

Both Woodruffe, 24 and Eric Black Jr. now face capital murder charges for the violent act that,
according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office, killed Jazmine instantly and left her mother and three
sisters injured. Jazmine was laid to rest at a funeral in Houston.

An attorney for Larry D. Woodruffe, 24, says that Woodruffe told police he was not involved in the
killing, and that the only thing connecting him to the crime is a statement from another man arrested in
the case, according to NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston.

"My experience is that people have a big motive to get themselves out of hot water," attorney Lisa
Andrews said. "It is also my experience, after twenty years of doing criminal law on both sides, that
shooters don't give up their gun. And that gun he led the cops to was at his house, not my client's."

The other suspect, Eric Black Jr., 20, was charged first in
the shooting, and authorities have said he admitted he was
the driver of the vehicle from which the shots were fired at
the car Jazmine and her family were in at around 6:50 a.m.
as they traveled to a store.

The prosecutor said in court this week that Black told
officials that another man, at that time only identified as
Larry W., opened fire from the front seat. According to
court documents, Black told authorities the gun used was at

Larry D. Woodruffe, center, is escorted from the courtroom after a hearing on
ANB House of Royalty Publications Jan. 10, 2019, in Houston. Woodruffe is charged with capital murder in the Dec.
30, 2018 slaying of 7-year-old Jazmine Barne