Commentary

COMMENTARY: Justice for Jazmine

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Many in the Greater Houston community are relieved to know that Jazmine’s killers have been apprehended and may soon face justice. However, the road to finding these suspects has been a real rollercoaster of high emotions and cloudy details.

Published

7 years ago

January 10, 2019

Oakland Post

By Jeffrey L. Boney, Associate Editor via Houston Forward Times

Since December 30th of last year, the Greater Houston community has been in a frenzy due to the fact that no one had been apprehended for the tragic drive-by shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes, who was shot in the head as she and her three sisters sat in their mother’s car while going to the store.

Now, many in the community are relieved to know that Jazmine’s killers have been apprehended and may soon face justice. However, the road to finding these suspects has been a real rollercoaster of high emotions and cloudy details.

Most of the frenzy came with the reports that the alleged shooter was a White male driving a red pickup truck. That information turned out not to be true.

Before the suspects were arrested, police had released a sketch of the suspect based on the description provided by Jazmine’s mother, LaPorsha Washington, and her three sisters. The description they gave identified the shooter as a White man in his 40s, driving away in a red pickup truck. However, we now know that Jazmine’s shooter was not a White man, but was actually a Black man, who was joined by another Black man as his accomplice.

Two suspects – Eric Black Jr. and Larry Woodruffe – have been identified as the individuals responsible for Jazmine’s murder.

As part of their investigation, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office states they received an anonymous tip from New York-based writer and activist, Shaun King, after someone reached out to him with information stating that Black and another person, identified in court as “L.W.,” shot at Jazmine’s family’s vehicle after mistaking it for another one. That person was later identified as Woodruffe.

According to an affidavit, Black was arrested this past Saturday during a traffic stop for allegedly not using his turn signal. He was taken into custody for marijuana possession and when he was questioned by homicide investigators about the murder based on the tips they had received, Black allegedly told investigators that he was the driver of the vehicle that was used in the shooting. He went on to say that a man in the passenger seat, who is believed to be Woodruffe, was the person who actually shot Jazmine, according to the affidavit.

Woodruffe was allegedly a passenger in a rental car when he and Black spotted a vehicle they thought they recognized and allegedly opened fire out the window as they drove by. The two men returned the rental car and picked up a new one that Black was driving when authorities stopped him.

The affidavit also states that Black told investigators the gun used in the shooting was at his home and that he gave officers permission to search for the gun, and upon doing so found a 9mm pistol consistent with shell casings recovered from the scene.

Black faces a capital murder charge for his role in the shooting death of Jazmine. According to jail records, Woodruffe is currently in custody on drug possession charges and has also been charged with capital murder in connection with the shooting.

In the meantime, investigators still want to locate the driver of the red pickup truck that was reported at the scene by many witnesses, including Jazmine’s family. According to Harris County Sheriff Gonzalez, his office does not believe that racism or the driver had any role to play in the shooting, as had been previously reported. Gonzalez wants that driver to come forward and hopes the arrest of the suspects can lead to healing for the family and the community.

“We still want that individual (driving the red truck) to come forward, as it appears this was a case of mistaken identity,” Gonzalez said at a press conference this past Sunday. “This death of Jazmine has sparked a lot of discussion on many different levels and I think that it is good that going forward we continue to have positive dialogue on a number of issues.”

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee also joined Gonzalez at the press conference and shared her thoughts on the tragic loss of life of this young girl.

“I ask for the continued prayers of the community for the family of Jazmine Barnes,” said Congresswoman Jackson Lee. “I commend Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and the entire Harris County Sheriff’s Department, Chief Art Acevedo and the Houston Police Department, Houston Constables, and all other law enforcement, including the Department of Justice, which offered and provided the services of their federal law enforcement operation. This was a heinous crime. Our entire community and the nation were filled with horror and thoughts of the real possibility, based on early descriptions, that this crime was based upon hate. Again, we hope the family will now have peace and will be able to funeralize little Jazmine Barnes and bring some solace and peace to all of their lives. They will never have this precious little girl again in their lives. This entirely premature death of this beautiful little girl has shocked me and our community and outraged the nation. May God bless the family and this community.”

The details of the shooting death are truly heart wrenching.

As Jazmine’s mother drove them to the store to get items to cook breakfast that morning, the suspects pulled up next to their car around 7 a.m. and opened fire. Jazmine’s mother was shot in the arm, but Jazmine was shot in the head and was lifeless before even making it to a hospital. This situation has been truly traumatic for the parents.

Christopher Cevilla, Jazmine’s father, was relieved at the news of the suspects being caught. He said he breathed “a sigh of relief that police did their job and found who they feel is the right suspect.”

This case has garnered national attention in that Shaun King helped lead a charge to offer a $100,000 reward for information that would lead to the capture and conviction of Jazmine’s killers. No information has been released on whether the anonymous tipster will be receiving the reward for their helpful information. This past Saturday, a “Justice for Jazmine” rally drew hundreds of supporters and nearly 3,000 people have donated to a GoFundMe account that was set up for Jazmine’s funeral expenses and family. Even Houston Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins pledged to donate his entire playoff game check to the family.

Jazmine was laid to rest this past Tuesday at Green House International Church.

There is still more information forthcoming about this case.

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

22 hours ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.