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‘He Intentionally Killed My Child For No Reason,’ Says Grieving Mom Of 7-Year-Old Gunned Down By Passing Driver

Jazmine Barnes was shot and killed in a "senseless shooting" Sunday morning while riding in the car with her family on the way to the grocery store.

By Jill Sederstrom

The family of a 7-year-old girl who was shot and killed Sunday morning while riding in the car with her family to a grocery store in Houston is pleading for answers about the young girl's death.

"I just want anybody, whoever, out there that knows anything about the murder of my daughter to just please step up as if it was your own," the girl's father, Christopher Cevilla, said during a press conference, according to People. "Just put yourself in my shoes—in my family's shoes."

Jazmine Barnes was shot in the head while riding with her mother and siblings to the store. Her mother, LaPorsha Washington, 30, said just as the family passed a Walmart, someone in a red truck pulled up alongside the car and began firing shots into the vehicle.

"As I turned around and looked back at the street, I heard shots start firing and they came through my window, broke my glass, and hit me in my arm," she told KTRK from her hospital bed. "They sped off in front of us and the truck slowed down and continued to fire as he was in front of us."

According to Washington, the attack was unprovoked but seemed deliberate.

"He intentionally killed my child for no reason," she said. "He didn't even know her, he didn't know who she was."

She said the family had been happily listening to music while they drove to a grocery store to pick up coffee for an 87-year-old uncle when the shots rang out.

The grief-stricken mother told KHOU she's now left wondering why the family was targeted.

"I replayed this moment, in my head over a million times. Did I see?," she said. "Did I cut this man off? Did I make a wrong turn in front of him? Did I stop him from getting out of the Walmart, from whatever he was doing, did I do anything wrong to cause this man to fire shots in my car? And I didn't. I didn't do anything."

The Harris County Sheriff's Office has released images of a red pickup truck they believe the shooter was driving at the time of the early morning shooting.

The suspect is described as a white male in his 40s with a beard. He was wearing a red hoodie at the time of the attack.

"A total of 5 occupants in the car witnessed this child, their loved one, shot and killed before their eyes," the sheriff's office said in a statement on Facebook. "So senseless."

The family discovered the 7-year-old had been killed moments after the shooting had stopped when one of Washington's other daughters noticed Barnes was no longer moving.

"She said, 'Momma, Jazmine's not moving. She's not talking.' I turned around and my 7-year-old was shot in the head," Washington told KTRK.

Her 6-year-old daughter also sustained injuries from broken glass. Washington was shot once in the arm, while two teens in the car were uninjured.

Authorities are now urging the shooter to turn himself in.

"We're going to find you," Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at the press conference, according to People.

[Photo: Harris County Sheriff's Office]

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