Texas police urge locals to help identify man who fatally shot 7-year-old girl in car

Authorities in Harris County, Texas are urging locals and businesses to view their surveillance footage to help identify the heartless man who fatally shot a 7-year-old riding in the back seat of her mom’s car.

Second-grader Jazmine Barnes was killed Sunday morning while traveling with her three sisters and mother, who said she was out searching for a coffee shop.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a Monday press conference that police believe the shooting “was totally unprovoked.”

Officials have described the suspect as a white man with a beard who looks to be in his 40s, and who was wearing a red hoodie and driving a four-door red pickup truck at the time of the incident.

“We need to make sure we get this killer off the streets,” Gonzalez said.

The child’s father, Christopher Cevilla, also pleaded for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward.

“I just want anybody, whoever, out there that knows anything about the murder of my daughter, to just please step up as if it was your own,” Cevilla said at the Monday news conference. “Just put yourself in my shoes, in my family’s shoes.”

Jazmine's mom, 30-year-old LaPorsha Washington, was shot in the arm and survived. Besides, Jazmine, Washington was traveling with three other daughters ranging in age from 6 to 15.

The oldest daughter was in the front passenger seat alongside her mom, while the other two daughters where in the back with Jazmine. The youngest child has glass-fragment injuries from the shooting.

Initial reports stated that Washington was pulling out of a Houston-area Walmart parking lot at the time of the shooting, but Washington has since said that was not the case.

The devastated mom says was stopped at a red light after passing a Walmart while hunting for coffee when the shooting began.

"Gunshots was fired into my car,” Washington told Houston’s local ABC News station KTRK-TV. “And then he didn't just stop there. He sped up in front of us and still continued to fire at us. I have no tint on my windows. You can see directly in my car. He’s seeing five women in this car. Children in this car. Females, young children in this car and he intentionally fired off into my car and kept firing. He has no heart. He has no heart.”

Harris County Sheriff’s Maj. Jesse Razo has vowed to use all resources available to bring the killer to justice. “We will be looking for you,” Razo said. “We will locate you. We will find you.”