HUNTSVILLE, Texas (KXAN) – A cold-case homicide continues to frustrate Austin police detectives as it stirs up old grief for a young man who was there the night his best friend was shot and killed.

Nearly five years ago, Ebby Leal-Monroy was steps away when he heard the rifle shot that took the life of 17 year-old Luis Jesus Lopez.

“I try not to go back to that day. I don’t like talking about it,” said Leal-Monroy recently from his new home in Huntsville.

But the now, 22 year-old man agreed to share his side of what happened Aug. 12, 2008, with KXAN in hopes someone, somewhere knows where the suspect is.

“We were out for a stroll,” he said, acknowledging he and Lopez were “just being kids.”

Leal-Monroy said he was a few steps ahead of Lopez when his friend told him to run after apparently seeing a man behind a shrub. He recalls hearing a shot and his friend crying out. Survival instinct kicked in and he took off, not looking back.

Up to that point, neither boy had been in major prior trouble with the law. But the police report said that evening the boys had been casing vehicles in the neighborhood to steal a stereo. Lopez used his cell phone to shine light into the car, looking for a specific type of stereo. The teen had told his friend to act as lookout.

Newly released police dash cam video shows a frightened Leal-Monroy sprinting down the road around 11 p.m. that night. An Austin police officer on patrol on East Rundberg Lane responded after hearing the crack of a single gunshot.

When the officer got to an alley off Crown Ridge Road — really just driveway for a line of small duplexes — Lopez was lying face down, unmoving. He’d been shot in the spine and was declared dead minutes later.

The black-and-white video also shows Leal-Monroy having returned to the alley with police, crying out in anguish and shock, pleading for someone to help.

It’s believed the shot came from behind a shrub near the single level apartment belonging to the suspect, Arturo Bueno. The police account says he had noticed the cell phone light in the alley from his window and decided to take matters into his own hands.

Bueno positioned himself behind a shrub, shouted “Hey!” and fired a single shot from an AR-15, according to the report.

Austin homicide detective David Fugitt has been pursuing leads in the case since that summer night in 2008 – after Bueno took off, likely to Mexico police, say. They note they are working with the U.S. Marshal’s Office and Mexico’s Attorney General to track Bueno down.

“It’s been a rollercoaster ride, because at certain times we think that we gained leads as to his whereabouts and unfortunately have not panned out,” said Fugitt.

Police say Bueno left behind: a cache of weapons including an AR-15 assault rifle, two shotguns and two handguns.

He also left his common law wife who provided many of the details leading up to the shooting and afterward. She told police after hearing the shot, Bueno came back into the apartment and told her, ‘They were robbing from the neighbors, they were coming towards me.’ 

The police arrest warrant also indicated Bueno, who has a criminal history in the US involving family assault, burglary and immigration-related offenses said ‘I just wanted to scare them.’

If it was an accident, Bueno – who would now be 32 years-old is not around to confirm it. And others who lived in the area that night, have long since moved away or will not talk about it.

So the story rests in Ebby Leal-Monroy’s hands. He’s young man now and getting used to being a dad. He had a son with his girlfriend four months ago.

The boy is named Isaiah. His middle name is Luis in honor of Lopez. Leal-Monroy said when Isaiah one day asks how he got his middle name, he’ll tell him it is to honor an old friend.

In the bigger picture, the Lopez murder case raises questions of vigilante justice and whether a teenager suspected of breaking into cars deserved to be fatally shot in a North Austin alleyway. But there are no easy answers.

KXAN reached out to the family of Luis Lopez. They do not want to talk about the shooting, saying that won’t bring Lopez back.  His large grey granite gravestone in a South Austin cemetery is still adorned with wind chimes, a rose bush and other sentimental items. Someone recently left a bottle of Dr Pepper.

Leal-Monroy said he misses his friend daily and that he still loves him as a lost brother. For him, Luis Lopez will always be that good person. “He was always worried about the other person rather than himself.”

Austin police detectives say Bueno’s remaining family in Central Texas have been co- operative, to a point. They hope to generate new leads and are not giving up on finding the man who they believe shot a teenaged boy in cold blood on a summer’s night.

Last year, they took the unusual step of promoting the unsolved case on America’s Most Wanted . They are also offering a $1000. reward leading to Bueno’s arrest and conviction.

Austin Police Homicide’s main line is 512-974-5210.