HOUSTON – A mother wounded by gunfire pleads to her daughter's killer to come forward.
LaPorsha Washington,30, spoke from her bedside as she grieved the loss of her 7-year-old daughter Jazmine Barnes. The two were victims of a drive-by shooting Sunday morning on the Beltway 8 near Wallisville.
"You should have a heart and step forward and say you did this to this baby because she did not deserve what you did to her. And you were wrong. And as a man, you should step forward and take full responsibility for what you did to my child," Washington said.
She described her trip to get coffee that morning with her daughters when chaos broke out while trying to get to her destination, Joe V's.
“I heard shots start firing and they came through my window. Broke my glass, hit me in my arm. They sped off in front of us, and the truck slowed down and continued to fire while he was in front of us,” Washington said.
Washington said she tried to protect Barnes and told the other girls to get down. She said one of the other girls told her something was wrong.
"She say 'Momma, Jazmine’s not moving. She’s not talking.' I turned around and my 7–year-old was shot in the head," Washington said.
Washington is asking the public to please help in the capture of the person who shot at her car.
"He took away an innocent child and she didn’t deserve this at all," Washington said, " We did not deserve this. I don’t know what was going on, why he did this. But we did not deserve anything that this man did to us."
The Sheriff's Office described the vehicle as a red, four-door pickup. The gunman was described only as a bearded white man, possibly in his 40s, wearing a red hooded sweatshirt.
Investigators said they are still trying to determine a motive for the shooting.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at 713-221-6000 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.