DALLAS — It started with a quick trip to the neighborhood convenience store to get cigarettes. It ended with Luis Segovia laying mortally wounded in the parking lot.
Luis, 21, was gunned down in a carjacking on July 10.
“It was unbelievable,” said his brother and best friend, Michael Gomez. “One second he's there, the next second he's gone. It happened right in front of me and I couldn’t do nothing about it.”
Luis’ murder would go largely unnoticed outside of his family and friends. It happened just three days after the ambush-style attack that claimed the lives of four Dallas police officers and a DART officer in downtown Dallas.
At least nine people have been murdered in the city of Dallas since those attacks.
MORE: Dying in Dallas
Luis was one of them. He was murder victim No. 95.
To date, the official murder count in Dallas is 104 -- a more than 20 percent increase over the last year. Twenty-two murders were recorded in July.
“All we want is justice,” said his cousin, Bianca Segovia. “It will never bring my cousin back … but we can help someone else not go through what we went through.”
Let me tell you about Luis.
There's a frequent refrain when family members talk about him.
He had an unquenchable appetite. He could be counted on to eat seconds and even thirds.
Luis, who worked in demolition, liked to make people laugh. He was forever picking on his two younger sisters, Daisy and Luz, in a good-natured way, of course.
He and his older brother, Michael, were inseparable. They were the best of friends.
The brothers loved to cruise around Dallas after work. They’d ride around and try to get lost.
They’d drive into nice neighborhoods and dream about one day being able to provide that for their family. They dreamed of starting a family business.
“We’d always talk about dream and things we’d like to do for the family,” Michael says.
The brothers were together just like always in the early morning hours of July 10.
Michael, a smoker, wanted cigarettes.
They drove to the Texaco station on Great Trinity Forest Parkway. It’s just around the corner from the family home. Michael pulled up in front of the store.
“I just got my wallet, took a $20 ... said, ‘I'll be back little bro,'” he said. “He said, ‘Alright, just hurry up.’”
That was their last conversation.
Surveillance video shows a man milling around the parking lot of the store. He walked between the gas pumps.
He disappeared from camera view, appearing to get in the SUV. You then see the SUV start shaking, indicating there’s a struggle going on inside.
Meanwhile, Michael was inside paying for the cigarettes. He heard a “pop” outside.
On the video, the passenger door opened. Luis was shoved to the pavement and the SUV drove off.
Michael ran outside, chased after the car and then returned to his brother. Bystanders surrounded Luis trying to help him.
Family later gathered around Luis at the hospital.
“I told him to wake up, to wake up,” Michael said. “Everybody was waiting for him to open his eyes. … I just told him to wake up, wake up, wake up.”
Doctors told his family he couldn't be saved. He was brain dead.
The family decided to donate his organs. Four lives were saved as a result, his family says.
Inside the Segovia’s living room, there’s a small shrine to Luis. There’s a picture of him smiling after eating at his favorite Chinese buffet, as well as others at Christmas and family events.
“I’m not the same without him to tell you the truth,” Michael says. “I close my eyes and just see a big smile or just remember the fun stuff that we did.”
He hasn’t been back to the store since. He can’t bring himself to do it.
He also hasn’t been cruising since his brother died.
While we were there, his mother, Mirella, made one of Luis’ favorite meals --– carnitas, beans and tortillas.
“It feels incomplete without him,” Michael said.
Mirella was too upset to eat. Tears rolled down her face.
“I wish he would be here with us, eating with us, being with the family," said Mirella, her 19-year-old daughter translating for her. "I wish, I wish."
Anyone with information about Luis Segovia’s murder can anonymously called Crime Stoppers at (214) 373-TIPS (8477). Crime Stoppers will pay up to $5,000 for information called into Crime Stoppers that leads to the arrest and indictment in the case.