Death of Alpo Martinez: Shooting, Acquittal, and Harlem Reaction

Alberto “Alpo” Martinez, the former Harlem drug kingpin turned federal informant, was shot and killed in the early hours of Halloween 2021 while sitting in his pickup truck on Frederick Douglass Boulevard. He was 55. The death of Alpo Martinez closed a story that ran from the crack era through the witness protection program and back to the same Harlem streets he once controlled. The man charged with pulling the trigger was later acquitted, and no one else has been charged.

How Alpo Martinez Was Killed

At roughly 3:20 a.m. on October 31, 2021, Martinez was driving a maroon 2017 Dodge Ram south on Frederick Douglass Boulevard near West 151st Street when a gunman fired multiple shots through the driver’s side window.¹ He was struck five times, in the arm, chest, and chin.² Wounded, he drove about four blocks before crashing into parked cars near West 147th Street.³ He was taken to Harlem Hospital and pronounced dead there.⁴

When officers reached the truck, Martinez was carrying identification in the name Abraham Rodriguez, listing a Lewiston, Maine address.⁵ Police also recovered about a dozen baggies of a brown substance believed to be heroin scattered along the street; investigators believed Martinez had thrown them from the truck after he was hit.¹

The Arrest, the Motive, and the Acquittal

On November 6, 2021, the NYPD arrested Shakeem Parker, then 27, and charged him with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.³ Parker pleaded not guilty.

Investigators concluded early that the shooting was not retaliation for Martinez’s history as a government cooperator. Officials described the motive instead as a road rage grudge. During the summer of 2021, Martinez, known for tearing through Harlem on motorcycles and dirt bikes, had struck Parker with one of his motorcycles while Parker was on foot. Prosecutors said Parker held on to the anger for months.⁶⁷ Prosecutor Jung Park told the court that Parker spotted Martinez in his Ram truck on Halloween morning, fired three shots into the driver’s side window, turned away, then turned back to fire two more.

Parker sat in jail for two and a half years awaiting trial. The case was heard in the Criminal Court of the City of New York before Judge Daniel Conviser, with jury selection starting in early June 2024. On July 9, 2024, the jury acquitted Parker of all charges, and he was released.⁸ No one else has been charged in Martinez’s killing.

Why He Was in Harlem That Night

Martinez had been released from a Colorado prison in 2015 after serving more than two decades of a 35-year federal sentence.⁵ He was placed in the federal witness protection program and relocated to Lewiston, Maine, where he lived in a first-floor apartment on College Street as Abraham Rodriguez.⁹

His life there was quiet. He worked at a Pepsi distributor warehouse, did construction, and most recently hung Sheetrock in nearby Scarborough. He befriended a local bank employee, Nik Pappaconstantine, after walking in to open his first bank account, and the two bonded over cars and adventure sports.¹⁰ A neighbor, Lance Brown, said Martinez cooked meals for him after he broke his ankle.⁹ Neighbors had no idea who he really was.

Despite the protected status, Martinez drove back to New York often in his lifted pickup and turned up in Harlem regularly.⁵ In the months before his death he was mostly gone from Lewiston. He returned about two or three weeks before the shooting, packed his belongings into a U-Haul, and drove off. Neighbors only realized who he was when one of them, Kaileigh Tara, recognized his distinctive truck in news photos of the Harlem crime scene.⁹

The History That Shadowed the Investigation

The road rage theory landed against a backdrop of decades of speculation that Martinez would eventually be killed for something else entirely. He had started selling drugs in East Harlem at 13 and rose through the 1980s crack trade to become known as the “Mayor of Harlem,” running a lucrative operation alongside Rich Porter and Azie Faison.⁴

Martinez later confessed to killing Porter, telling interviewers he suspected Porter of cutting him out of drug deals and saying it “wasn’t personal” but “business.” An accomplice shot Porter in the chest, and Martinez then shot him in the head.⁴¹¹¹²

The FBI arrested Martinez in Southeast Washington just after midnight on November 6, 1991, on a federal drug indictment out of Alexandria, Virginia.¹³ Facing 14 counts of murder and the possibility of the death penalty, he cooperated. He confessed to a role in all 14 killings and testified against members of his organization, including hitman Wayne Perry, in exchange for the 35-year sentence.⁴ The label of “snitch” followed him for the rest of his life, which is why the initial assumption in Harlem, and beyond, was that the Halloween shooting was payback. Law enforcement’s finding pointed the other way.

Reaction in Harlem and Beyond

Members of Rich Porter’s family gathered near the scene of the shooting to celebrate. Porter’s niece Lorell told reporters the family had waited 32 years for the day. “It’s a celebration for Harlem, period,” she said. “Every dog has their day and today was his. I believe in karma.”¹⁴ The family offered no condolences to Martinez’s relatives.

Azie Faison, the third figure in the original Harlem trio, had left the drug world long before and become an anti-drug advocate, calling the lifestyle an “illusion” that ends in death, prison, or cooperation.²

The three men’s story had been dramatized in the 2002 film Paid in Full, produced by Dame Dash, with Cam’ron playing Rico (based on Martinez), Wood Harris as Ace (Faison), and Mekhi Phifer as Mitch (Porter). Faison wrote the script from his own experience. Cam’ron later recounted that Martinez himself had critiqued the performance at a New York restaurant, telling him his “movement was off a little bit” but that he “did a good job.”¹⁵ Reflecting after Martinez’s death, Phifer described Martinez and Porter as “Harlem Influencers” whose story should serve as a cautionary tale rather than glorification.¹⁶

1
New York Post. Alpo Martinez Was Throwing Drugs Out of Window Following Shooting
2
Amsterdam News. Disgraced Drug Kingpin Alpo Martinez Murdered in Harlem
3
Fox 5 NY. Arrest in Alpo Martinez Murder
4
Andscape. The Legacy of Notorious Drug Dealer Alpo Martinez
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Fox 5 NY. Alpo Martinez Gunned Down in Harlem Was Notorious Drug Kingpin
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Yahoo News. Alpo Martinez Killed Over Minor Road Rage Incident
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Fox 5 NY. Alpo Martinez Killed Over Road Rage, Not Betrayal
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Sun Journal. Man Accused of Killing Drug Kingpin Alpo Martinez Acquitted in New York
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Sun Journal. Former Drug Kingpin Led Surprisingly Simple Life in Lewiston
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The New York Times. Alpo Martinez Death
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Seattle Times. Man’s Murder May Be Tied to Kidnapping of Brother
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Deseret News. Kidnapped Boy Found Dead
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Washington Post. FBI Arrests Long-Sought Drug Suspect
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Madame Noire. Alpo Martinez Murder: Rich Porter Family Reaction
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Billboard. Cam’ron on Alpo Martinez and Paid in Full
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Complex. Mekhi Phifer Paid in Full Reflection on Alpo Martinez Death