RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Police established a crime scene Tuesday evening near the Brookland Park neighborhood in Richmond after a shooting was confirmed to have killed one man.

The Richmond Police Department confirmed that a death investigation is underway after crews responded to the shooting on the 2900 block of Hanes Avenue just after 7 p.m.

Once on scene, officers found an adult male with a gunshot wound lying unresponsive in an alley. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“I’m gonna wake up the rest of my life knowing that my son is no longer going to call my phone, and say, ‘Ma, I need this. I need that,’” said Maverne MacMullin, a woman who claimed to be the mother of the victim.

The scene unfolded as police laid out crime tape around West Brookland Park Boulevard and Hanes Avenue Tuesday night, and is the latest site of a terrible trend in the river city that seems to be getting worse.

“I couldn’t save my son, but I’m going to save somebody else’s, as many as I can along the way,” MacMullin said.

City crime data shows homicides with guns are up 20% compared to last year, which was the worst year in 15 years. Aggravated assaults are up 22%. Other violent crime, however, has gone down compared to last year: rapes, robbery and burglaries, too. At a recent press conference, Mayor Stoney said stopping gun violence would not be an immediate fix. And yet, families like MacMullin’s are left feeling continuous pain.

“Protect your kids at all costs — ma’ams, misters, grandmothers, grandfathers — protect them at all costs. Because, you never know, you might be standing in a scene like I am with my son,” MacMullin said.

“God is good all the time, even when we don’t have to understand or recollection to what it means, God is good all the time,” she added.

Police said the Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death of the man.

Anyone with information about this death investigation is asked to call Major Crimes Detective J. Higgins at 804-646-7570 or contact Crime Stoppers at 804-780-1000.

This story was written with additional reporting by 8News Reporter Ben Dennis.