The search intensified Wednesday for a gunman who killed a 7-year-old Houston-area girl as law enforcement officers combed through dozens of tips, tested ballistics and called for public help in finding the man last seen fleeing in a red pick-up truck.

The slaying of young Jazmine Barnes — which stunned the region and attracted nationwide attention — drew questions Wednesday from local activists about whether the attack was racially motivated, with the reported white gunman targeting the black family in their car outside a Walmart just a few miles from a similar shooting 16 months earlier.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said detectives have been working around the clock since the Sunday shooting.

“We will not rest until we solve this case,” he told reporters. “It’s not easy. We need help, but I’m confident we’re heading in the right direction.

“We need to be very deliberate in this process,” he said, “because ultimately we want to make sure we get to the right person.”

Do you have information? Anyone with information about Jazmine's shooter is urged to call Houston Crime Stoppers at 731-222-TIPS (8477).

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Amid the furor the case has generated, national civil rights activist Shaun King offered a reward of $60,000 and Crime Stoppers of Houston offered another $5,000 for information leading to apprehension of the killer.

Gonzalez said he expects to release an artist’s sketch of the gunman Thursday.

“We’re going to continue to do every effort possible to make sure we bring closure to the family and also that we get this killer off our street,” Gonzalez said. “We don’t want anyone else to be harmed in any way.”

Jazmine and her mother were shot, and two sisters were injured by flying shards of glass, about 6:50 a.m. Sunday when a man in a pickup truck pulled up next to their car near a Walmart in northeast Harris County. The shooter was described as a bearded white man possibly in his 40s; a red pickup can be seen in surveillance video fleeing the area.

Barnes’ mother, LaPorsha Washington, 30, who was shot in the arm, told reporters she was taking Barnes and her three sisters — a 6-year-old and two teenagers — on an early morning coffee run.

“The truck slowed down and continued to fire as he was in front of us,” Washington told ABC13. “It was not fair. It was not fair. He intentionally killed my child for no reason. He didn’t even know her.”

Barnes, described by Gonzalez as an angelic child who had told her parents she wanted to be a teacher, was struck in the head by a bullet.

A similar shooting

Local civil rights activist Deric Muhammad said Wednesday he believed Jazmine’s murder could be connected to a shooting nearby during Hurricane Harvey.

During the 2017 shooting, then-21-year-old A’vonta Williams was driving along Garrett Road near East Beltway 8 to check on his girlfriend in the wake of Harvey when he said he was shot by a white male in a Ford F-150 truck.

Williams was struck in both legs, and his grandmother, who was also in the car with him, was shot in the hip. He drove to the Beltway at Wallisville where he called 911.

Williams’ family claimed that detectives failed to investigate the shooting for months and have yet to make an arrest in the case.

“If A’vonta Williams’ shooter had been found, would Jazmine Barnes still be alive?” Muhammad said, speaking outside a Harris County Sheriff’s Office substation Wednesday morning. “We’ve got to call it what it is. Black people are being targeted in this country. Black people are being targeted in this city. We are thoroughly convinced that the killing of Jazmine Barnes was race-related.”

The area where Williams was shot is several miles from where Barnes and her family were attacked. Muhammad said both shooters were white men who shot black families, and both were driving pickups — though Williams’ shooter was believed to have been driving a gray truck.

Gonzalez acknowledged Muhammad’s concerns, calling the slaying “alarming,” but said he couldn’t speculate on motive while detectives investigate the case.

“We simply don’t know,” he said. “It would be irresponsible for me to make that claim without fully knowing [hate] is the linkage.”

‘One phone call away’

On Wednesday, the family was still recovering from the violent assault, as relatives took Barnes’ older sisters to a doctor to have glass removed. Washington has since left the hospital.

A relative said the family was still sorting out funeral arrangements.

Officials said investigators have returned to the site where Jazmine was killed, speaking to business owners and looking for additional surveillance video. The sheriff’s office is working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to analyze ballistics evidence left behind at the scene to see if the gun can be linked to previous shootings.

They also are combing law enforcement databases and canvassing the neighborhood to try to stir up clues, especially from people who might know the shooter.

“We’re always just one phone call away, and that could drop at any point,” Gonzalez said.

st.john.smith@chron.com

jay.jordan@chron.com