Armando Alcantara, 47, was shot and killed at about 4 p.m. on Friday, January 28, 2011, at his own business, AA Roofing Supply Warehouse, in the 13700 block of Almeda School Road in south Houston. He died at the scene. The Houston Police Department investigated.
According to police, three men tried to rob the business. Two armed men went inside and demanded money from Alcantara, then shot him several times. They ran out and fled in a pickup truck driven by the third man.
Alcantara suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead before he could be taken to a hospital.
Police released composite sketches of the two gunmen, both described as Hispanic men with light complexions who spoke with a Central American accent. The first was in his mid-20s to early 30s, 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall and 180 to 200 pounds, wearing a black baseball cap and a blue striped polo shirt. The second was in his mid-20s, 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 5 inches tall and 130 to 140 pounds, with black hair, wearing a charcoal gray hooded sweatshirt. There was no description of the driver.
The getaway vehicle was a red Chevrolet S-10 regular-cab pickup truck from about 1994 to 1997, with a chrome grill and no license plates. Police asked anyone who recognized the men in the sketches or the truck to call the HPD Homicide Division.
Alcantara owned and ran AA Roofing Supply Warehouse on Almeda School Road. A business of that kind would have had regular customers, suppliers and delivery drivers coming and going, some of whom may have noticed strangers watching the warehouse in the days before the robbery. His death was counted by the Houston Press as the city's 12th homicide of 2011.
Almeda School Road runs through the far southern part of Houston, an area of warehouses, small businesses and homes. A red pickup with no plates leaving a business there on a Friday afternoon may have been noticed by people at nearby businesses.
Houston, the fourth-largest city in the United States, recorded roughly 200 to 300 homicides a year between 2007 and 2017, and its homicide detectives carried heavy caseloads. Hundreds of the city's killings from those years were never solved.
Old Houston cases can still be solved. In November 2025, Houston police charged two men with murder in a May 2016 driveway shooting on McDaniel Street in north Houston that had gone unsolved for more than nine years. The victim's sister said the family had believed the call would never come. Crime Stoppers of Houston accepts tips without asking for names, and a tip that leads to charges may be eligible for a cash reward.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Armando Alcantara could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. The Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in Houston through 2017, lists the case as open with no arrest. Anyone who recognizes the men in the 2011 composite sketches, or who knew someone with a red Chevrolet S-10 pickup at the time, may hold the key to this case. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Houston Police Department Homicide Division at 713-308-3600, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers of Houston at 713-222-TIPS (713-222-8477).
