Reward being offered in deadly shooting in southeast Houston

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- He tried to buy a lottery ticket -- moments later he was dead. Family and friends are now asking anyone if they know who killed Joe Hillsman last week inside a southeast Houston convenience store.

Joe Hillsman visited a convenience store at 2900 Almeda-Genoa in southeast Houston almost daily, so much so, the staff knew him.

For Hillsman's family, the pain is still fresh and it will always be with them.

"What happened to him was not right," said a family member.

Four nights ago, the 37-year-old went to his neighborhood convenience store to buy a lottery ticket and a Mountain Dew. It was his routine and that night he was there when two armed robbers walked in one put a gun to his head. He wrestled the weapon away but the accomplice shot him. Hillsman later died. At least one robber has been arrested.

"But there's still two more out there- and we're hoping the community will let them know the no snitch policy does not apply when they're killing innocent civilians in cold blood," said Quanell X.

The family of Joe Hillsman made a public appeal for information Sunday night that will put his killer in custody -- as well as the getaway driver.

"It's rough when someone who cares about family, friends, stays to himself -- an upstanding citizen and hard-worker for something so senseless like this to happen to him," said the victim's cousin Tenora Smith.

Police and family have hit a wall of resistance in getting information that would bring those responsible to justice. The suspect in custody isn't talking. To those who know who was involved in the robbery that became a murder, Hillsman's father asks them to consider this.

"My son could have been your son. He could be standing here. I done seen this scenario so many times, I never thought it would be me," said the victim's father Joe Allen Barnes.

If you have any information about the case, contact Houston police.