HPD: Gunman in deadly shooting arrested 36 years later

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A 36-year cold case is now closed with the arrest of a fatal shooting suspect.

Police say Leon Dudley, 69, is now charged in the 1979 murder of a man on Buffalo Speedway, near Main Street in southwest Houston.

Dudley allegedly was arguing with a waitress on November 3, 1979 in the parking lot of the restaurant where she worked. At one point, he pulled out a gun and opened fire on a crowd that had gathered.

HPD says Dudley fled the scene on a METRO bus and remained at large until now.

Stephan Tramble Chambers, 23, died at Ben Taub Hospital. A second victim, Charles Eugene Philleo, 25, was shot in the mouth but survived the shooting.

Philleo died of natural causes in 1998.

Detectives say the Gulf Coast Violent Offender Task Force recently learned Dudley was living in Euclid, Ohio. He was arrested in Cleveland, but Dudley declined to give investigators any additional information in the case.

The suspect has waived extradition and will be transferred to the Harris County Jail.