Kristian Gaona was an 18-year-old Hispanic/Latino male shot and killed while walking with three friends along Ashcroft in far southwest Houston on November 12, 1995. A black, newer-model SUV pulled up beside the group, a verbal exchange occurred, and seconds later shots were fired from the vehicle. Gaona was struck, taken to a hospital, and pronounced dead.

Investigators later identified a suspected shooter as Chad Everett Bujano, who was 16 at the time. Officers initially were unable to find and arrest him. During a renewed review, police said Bujano was located, interviewed, and admitted a role in the shooting, saying he fled to Mexico afterward and returned to the United States using an alias. Bujano was certified to be tried as an adult and was arrested and charged with murder in late August 2014, but prosecutors dropped the charge in May 2016, saying they did not believe the evidence would be enough to prove the case.

For Gaona’s family and the friends who were there that day, the killing remains a sudden loss and an unresolved search for accountability. Does anyone who knew Kristian or was in that neighborhood on November 12, 1995, have information to share?