David Montgomery and Julia Jacobs

Nearly 1,000 people gathered to honor Jazmine and to urge law enforcement to find the man who police said attacked on Dec. 30 without provocation.

Jazmine, who was black, was in the car with her mother and three sisters when a white man pulled his red pickup truck beside them and began shooting, police said. A bullet struck Jazmine in the head and she died at the scene, police said. The gunman was described as a man in his 30s or 40s wearing a hooded sweatshirt.

“We’re going to find him no matter what corner we have to turn,” said LaPorsha Washington, Jazmine’s mother, who was driving at the time of the attack. “We’re going to find you.”

In the crowd, a call-and-response chant demanded “Justice for Jazmine.” They embraced one another. A pastor led them in prayer.

Washington told The Houston Chronicle that she believed the attack was racially motivated, and the case has drawn attention from civil rights activists across the country.

“I have no tint on my windows or anything so you can see there is a mother — a black mother — with daughters, beautiful children,” Washington told CNN. “You took my baby from me and you have no care in the world.”

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez of Harris County, Texas, said at a news conference this week that it was too early for investigators to speculate about the gunman’s motive because he had not yet been identified.

Community members drew a connection to a shooting in August 2017, which remains unsolved.

In that episode, a white man in a pickup opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle at a car carrying A’Vonta Williams, who is black, and his girlfriend’s family, according to the sheriff’s office and Williams’ mother. No one was killed but both of Williams’ legs were shattered by a bullet, said his mother, Kisshima Williams. The girlfriend’s grandmother was also injured.

Gonzalez said police were taking a fresh look at that case for any possible links to the recent attack. The shootings occurred about 6 miles apart, he said.

Lee Merritt, a Philadelphia-based lawyer representing Jazmine’s family, said on Saturday he believed the shooting had the markings of a hate crime, in part because of the “randomness and unprovoked nature” of the attack.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, whose district includes parts of Houston, said the racial dynamics of the case were apparent. “Do not be afraid to call this what it seems to be: a hate crime,” she told the crowd, demanding an investigation by the Justice Department.

After Jazmine’s killing, the public mobilized to help the family. Merritt and Shaun King, a prominent racial justice activist and a columnist at The Intercept, have offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the gunman’s arrest. DeAndre Hopkins, a wide receiver for the Houston Texans, pledged to donate his paycheck from this weekend’s playoff game, which amounts to $29,000, to help pay for Jazmine’s funeral.

At the rally Saturday, supporters clutched banners and artwork dedicated to Jazmine, who was in second grade at a Houston-area school.

“No peace, no justice,” the crowd chanted. Many parents said the shooting put them in fear for their own lives and those of their children.

The site of the rally, a Walmart parking lot, was about a half-mile from where the attack took place, said Lt. Eric Batton of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. The store provided the police with the first clue about the gunman’s identity: images of his pickup truck captured by video surveillance.

But aside from a sketch of the gunman, his identity remains unknown. At the rally, Gonzalez urged the crowd to keep reporting possible leads to police. “We’re always just one phone call away from being able to break this case,” he said.

Kim Green, a 44-year-old mother of two boys, said she drove more than 50 miles with her 12-year-old son, Khayman Clarkson, to attend the rally.

She clutched a banner reading “Justice” and “Jazmine” and a drawing of a princess she planned to give the family.

“I have two black boys living in the middle of all these senseless killings,” she said. “I’m definitely worried about my own children. It’s too close to home.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/05/us/jazmine-barnes-houston-rally.html" id="d258c5e7-b311-31db-a3c5-2a82ddf65f7d">The New York Times</a>.

HOUSTON — Relatives of Jazmine Barnes, the 7-year-old Texas girl who was fatally shot inside a moving car, grieved on Saturday at an emotionally charged rally not far from where the gunman opened fire on a family that was out on a morning coffee run.

At Rally for Jazmine Barnes, an Outpouring of Grief and a Plea for Answers

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David Montgomery and Julia Jacobs

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At Rally for Jazmine Barnes, an Outpouring of Grief and a Plea for Answers