made his first appearance in court sunday. kaley hartung has more on the case that sent shockwaves across the u.s. reporter: authorities say jazmine barnes death is very likely a case of mistaken identity, that when a gunman opened fire on the car she was in he believed somebody else to be inside. we re told this investigation unraveled very quickly on friday authorities had received a tip by way of activist shaun king. they then pulled eric black jr. over in a traffic stop, brought him in on a possession of marijuana charge, and once he started talking he eventually confessed to being the driver of the car in which another man sat in the passenger seat and pulled the trigger on the gun that shot and killed jazmine barnes. authorities say they are being very cautious in their language now as black is the only man who has been charged in relation to barnes murder. they say this is an ongoing investigation. when it comes to the discrepancy between that composite sketch of a white man
week-long hunt for a suspect or suspects has gripped the nation. we stand by for a briefing in houston, texas, and we bring that to you live once it begins. the breakthrough in the case began with a tip that ended with eric black jr. in handcuffs facing a charge of capital murder. but the arrest has raised questions since black s appearance doesn t match a police sketch or eyewitness account that a white man fired the shots that killed little jazmine barnes while she was riding in the car with her mother and sisters. let s bring in cnn s kaley hartung in houston. still a lot of unanswered questions in this investigation. k kaley? there are, and we hope they re addressed in this press conference set to begin any minute. the description from the unnamed source was very detailed. it said it actually shot at her
this white man in his 30s or 40s with the five cloo clock shadow we ve seen in the picture. we do not expect the family to be present for this press conference, fred, but we know their attorney has been by the sheriff s department this afternoon. kaley hartung, thank you so much. again, we await this sheriff press conference to get underway. when it does, we ll go to it live. in the meantime there are a lot of details and questions coming out of this case. let s discuss with special agent james galiano. james, after hearing some of these details that kaley is reporting on, what stands out to you? first and foremost, fred, i have to say outstanding work by the law enforcement community in houston to bring this thing to a relatively quick resolution. nothing is going to bring jazmine back. this is a seven-year-old girl, and i can tell you after 25
mistaken identity. the arrest comes as jazmine s family prepares for her funeral on wednesday. kaley is standing by in houston to let us know about what s happening. what do we know about the arrest versus the person we saw walking versus the composite sketch that was distributed? reporter: freddie, over the course of the past week, authorities have been pleading with the public to share any information they could to lead to the capture of jazmine barnes killer. that s exactly how we got to where we are now. it was a tip from an anonymous source sent by e-mail to the harris county sheriff here. this e-mail incredibly detailed in which eric black jr. and another man were named as being involved in this killing. it s really a case of twofold mistaken identity.
harried situation. police can never get so narrowly focused on one piece of evidence to the exclusion of everything else, fred. you said it really does you know, you praise that there is some resolution here, but just underscoring even what kaley was saying, there were eyewitness accounts or descriptions coming from four people. and the descriptions are very different from the suspect that we re seeing now. to what extent do you see a good part of this press conference is going to be to help justify the arrest or help paint the picture about, you know, these discrepancies or even speak to some of these discrepancies? so you raise a very good issue. let s unpack that for the viewer here, fred. people are asking, if there were other additional witnesses that saw this red vehicle, this truck, and supported the description of a white male,