More than six years after a robbery-turned-shootout left a Houston game room clerk dead, police have filed capital murder charges against two men — but only one of them is behind bars. Juvenal Antonio Lopez Rivera, 33, and Francisco Elieser Sanches Veliz, 37, are accused in the March 1, 2020 shooting at a game room at 2902 Almeda Genoa Road that claimed the life of 60-year-old Anastacio Alcazar.
Alcazar was shot in the chest and rushed to an area hospital, according to cityofhouston.news, which reports he died there on April 16, 2020 — roughly six weeks after the shooting. A witness told investigators at the time that the shooting happened during a robbery, the outlet notes.
According to ABC13 Houston, four to five masked men stormed the business with weapons before gunfire broke out between the group and two game room employees. One employee was shot in the chest, later identified as Alcazar, while the other was shot in the arm, the station reported at the time. A separate ABC13 account from the time of the shooting put the number of masked men entering the business at four, a detail police attributed to their initial investigation.
One Suspect Jailed, One Still Wanted
The case sat unresolved for years until this month, when investigators finally moved on two suspects. Sanches Veliz was taken into custody by the Texas Department of Public Safety Violent Crimes Unit on October 22, then charged and booked into the Harris County jail, per the same city account. Lopez Rivera was formally charged five days later, on October 27, but Houston police say he remains outstanding.
Search Continues for Second Suspect
Police have not said where Lopez Rivera might be or whether he has retained an attorney. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600, or to reach Crime Stoppers anonymously at 713-222-TIPS. The Houston Police Department has not released further detail on the other alleged participants described in the original robbery report, and it remains unclear whether additional arrests are expected.
