The shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes in Houston set off a media frenzy when the mother and sister of the victim described the shooter as a white male, "with blue eyes, a thin build and no beard.  They say he 'looked sick' with sunken cheekbones and a pale face with a 'five o'clock shadow.'  He was wearing a black hoodie."

The sister was even more helpful, giving authorities enough information to develop a sketch of the "killer" who, the mother says, "intentionally" targeted her daughter.

Authorities arrested Robert Cantrell, whose red pickup truck was identified by the mother as the vehicle the shooter fired from.

Justice done?  Not exactly.  A few hours after Cantrell was picked up, authorities arrested two black men for the crime.

ABC13:

An investigation tip led authorities to 20-year-old Eric Black Jr. who has been charged with capital murder in the deadly shooting and a second suspect has been taken into custody.

An investigation revealed evidence that corroborated the tip, authorities say, and Black was taken into custody in east Harris County without incident.  He later reportedly admitted to taking part in the shooting.

Black appeared in court just before 5 a.m. Sunday.  During court, it was revealed the suspects learned they had fired into the wrong vehicle after watching the news.

The mother never really said the crime was racially motivated.  That angle of the story was left to race-hustlers Shaun King of Black Lives Matter and S. Lee Merritt, Esq.  They ginned up outrage over the killing with the usual incendiary rhetoric.

Stopped by the barbershop to get a cut. The topic of #JazmineBarnes came up— “a little girl in Houston killed in a drive-by”.

That is not what happened! A white terrorist ambushed a family, riddling their car with bullets and killing a 7 y/o girl w/o any provocation.

— S. Lee Merritt, Esq. (@MeritLaw) January 4, 2019

URGENT. ALL HANDS ON DECK.

A 40 y/o white man w/ a beard in a red pickup truck pulled up on 7 y/o Jazmine Barnes and her family near a Houston @Walmart and shot and killed her and injured others.

I am joining the search for her killer and have a $25,000 reward.

Need him NOW. pic.twitter.com/ugfA2nJ1k8

— Shaun King (@shaunking) January 1, 2019

What more can you tell me about Robert Cantrell?

He was arrested in Houston hours after Jazmine was murdered on another violent crime spree.

We’ve had 20 people call or email us and say he is a racist, violent asshole and always has been.

Just tell me everything you know. pic.twitter.com/7p1XAku1cd

— Shaun King (@shaunking) January 4, 2019

Patrick Poole writing at PJ Media explains:

If this sounds familiar to readers, it's because King and his pal Lee Meritt have played this game before.

Last May, Meritt publicly claimed that one of his clients, Sherita Dixon-Cole, had been kidnapped and raped by a Texas State Trooper, and then began an active campaign to target the trooper[.] ...

King was doing media hits pushing the story hyping the racial angle to the claims.

But shortly thereafter, the Texas Department of Public Safety released the trooper's entire body camera footage of the encounter, which clearly showed that the trooper had acted professionally and that there had been no kidnapping or rape.

Both King and Meritt then claimed that *they* were the real victims of the case[.]

The media have gone silent about the mistaken identity angle of the story despite the coverage they gave the killing of Jazmine Barnes and the detailed description the mother gave authorities of the killer.  In fact, there has been no mention of the mother's original description of the killer at all.

Cantrell's pickup was near the scene, so it's excusable that the mother and sister believed he may have been the killer.  But there's no excuse for the media bias in this case that turned a local tragedy into a national race drama.  All too easily, the media fall for these stories, especially when the "right" people push the racial angle to them.