Suspect in shooting of Houston girl charged with capital murder

HOUSTON — 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 said it 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-colored sport utility vehicle from which a passenger opened fire, authorities said.