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Jazmine, his mother and sisters are African American. When the case drew the attention of the country, suspicion increased about the fact that it was a racist aggression.
But when the investigators identified a suspect on Saturday, it looked nothing like the first composite sketch of the suspect created on the basis of witness reports.
Eric Black Jr., 20, is an African-American and a second suspect, according to Ed Gonzalez, Sheriff of Harris County.
Lawyer S. Lee Merritt, who represents Jazmine's family, said that her relatives were delighted to learn that her arrest had occurred – even though the suspect's race was a surprise .
On Sunday, authorities said the shooting was "probably a case of mistaken identity". The sheriff said that "it does not seem that (the shot) was related to the race".
Within a week, the description of the suspect and the circumstances that led to his death changed.
Here are some factors that could explain this situation:
The shooting took place quickly
LaPorsha Washington, 30, and his four daughters were in his car last Sunday, in a cafe . in a local convenience store. It was around 7 am, said Washington, and the girls were still in their pajamas.
Witnesses said that a person in a van had stopped near Washington and had opened fire on his car, said the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
The eldest daughter of Washington, Alexis Dilbert, was at the front. She told CNN last week that she remembered making eye contact with a man who had approached them. "Her eyes were blue, her face was thin and pale," she said.
On the basis of the description of the family, the investigators published a composite sketch of the suspect: he was white and lean, between 30 and 40 years old, with a shadow at 5 o'clock.
Gonzalez stated that he thought that they were telling truthfully what they remembered. "It was reduced very quickly when the shooting started," said the sheriff.
Three of Washington's children, Jazmine, a six-year-old teenager, were at the back, Washington said.
The sheriff said the shooting was traumatic for the children.
"You are talking about little children, they have witnessed something very traumatic, and it is very likely that the last thing they saw was … truck and that driver who was in that truck, and that's what they remember the latest. "
It was dark
Gonzalez said that the shooting had occurred before sunrise in the # 39, is Harris County, and darkness could also have an impact on eyewitness accounts.
"The sun did not start until around 7:15 that morning, so it was still dark when all that was going on," the sheriff said Sunday.
"So, many facets could have an impact on somebody's memory of what he saw at that time."
A red truck was there
At the beginning of the investigation, Harris County investigators released a photo of a surveillance film showing a red van. The sheriff urged the public to provide information when he "saw this red truck driving fast along the service road this morning."
Gonzalez said Sunday that there was a red truck on the scene of the shooting. The driver had stopped at a traffic light with Washington shortly before the shooting started, around 7am. The pickup probably entered Sam Houston's Tollway when the light went green.
"We now think that this red truck and its driver are most likely a witness, either visual or sound, of what really happened," Gonzalez said.
The sheriff said the authorities would still want to talk to the pickup driver, who might be able to shed light on what happened.
Testimony is Often Unreliable
At least four other witnesses also reported seeing someone in the fire of a red truck shooting at the vehicle said Merritt.
But the testimonies are intrinsically fallible.
"Generally speaking, when we talk about these kinds of events, we are talking about something that is happening quickly.It's unexpected," said Gary Wells, a psychology professor at Iowa State University. , expert in ocular testimony. "The brain is not really wired to record stenographic reports but rather to record the essentials of things."
This is especially the case in dangerous circumstances, he said.
"When we start to be scared, all of our mental resources tend to go to survival, which is why we avoid, we run," he said. "None of our mental resources will actually form long-term memory.This is not functional.What is functional to survive, it is to survive."
He added that the sketches were also unreliable and often led the police on the wrong track.
"When we see a face, we do not remember it because of its individual characteristics," said Wells. "We do not know the nose, we do not know the lips, the mouth, the chin, the eyes … We know the whole face."
The police acted on the information they had
As tips poured in, investigators searched the streets and tried to find the surveillance video, Gonzalez said. In the middle of last week, the police had received anonymous information that would guide the investigation into a white man driving a red pickup truck, Gonzalez said.
The tipster said Black and another person identified in court as "L.W." According to the affidavit, the sheriff had confused the Jazmine family vehicle with another vehicle, said the sheriff saying that the tip provided "a slightly different angle" and required further examination. "We had very basic information and they did not really work at the time," said the sheriff. The investigators followed and started to develop more tips, he said.
"It really started yesterday and the pieces started to fall together very quickly," the sheriff said Sunday.
charges of possession of drugs. He was not charged in connection with the shooting.
Regardless of the suspect's race, "the family was surprised and relieved by the arrest," Merritt said.
"They wanted the right person to be convicted – not a white person," said Merritt.
CNN's Holly Yan and Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.
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