LaKevin Ralpheal Debruce, a collegiate football player in Georgia, came back home to Birmingham to surprise his mother for her birthday.

It turned out to be the worst birthday ever for LaTanya Jemison.

Her 22-year-old son, a senior fefensive back and captain of his team at LaGrange College, was shot to death Nov. 19, 2023.

“As a mom, this has been hard,’’ Jemison said. “The day he died was on my birthday.”

“It’s hard to heal when you don’t what happened to your firstborn,’’ she said.

The deadly shooting happened just after 4 p.m. that Saturday in the 2600 block of Avenue C in Birmingham.

Someone in the area heard gunfire and then saw the victim fall out of a vehicle into the roadway. That witness called 911.

Debruce was taken to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced.

No arrests have been made. Birmingham police and Jemison are asking for the public’s help.

“An arrest to me would mean justice,’’ Jemison said. “Right now, I don’t even know what happened to my son. It would bring me closure and give me the process I need to start healing.”

Debruce graduated from Jackson-Olin High School and went on to play at LaGrange College, where he was much loved.

“On Nov. 18, someone that we love, someone that we call student, friend, leader, captain teammate and son and relative and grandson passed away from the epidemic of gun violence,” LaGrange College President Susanna Baxter said at an anti-gun-violence walk held on the campus, according to the LaGrange Daily News.

A scholarship has been created in his name there, and bench in his memory placed outside the Callaway Education Building.

Head Coach Wes Dodson said the team isn’t retiring Debruce’s number but they are honoring it differently – planning to only allow players with DeBruce’s character and hardworking attitude to wear his number, eight.

“Bruce was consistent in everything that he did. He consistently got up every day and loved life, loved everybody that was around him. He was one of the most consistent people I’ve been around as a coach,” Dodson said, according to the Daily News. “Everything he did every day, the way he lived his life, the way he loved everybody, the way he embodied our core values. … Every day he did his best, worked hard, and did extra work to make himself better. He showed people he cared. That’s why everyone’s here. Right? Because he showed you what it meant to care about someone.”

Jemison, who following her son’s death started anti-violence The Ball Out 8 Foundation in his memory, said Debruce was outgoing, dedicated and hoped to have a career in the NFL.

“Football was his life,’’ she said. “He’d played since he was 4.”

She said he was thrilled when he was named captain.

“That was the proudest day for him,’’ Jemison said.

“The last time I got actually hold my son was on his Senior Day,’’ she said.

Though Debruce didn’t live to see his college graduation, he did have enough credits and was posthumously awarded his bachelor’s degree in exercise science this past May.

Jemison didn’t know Debruce was coming home that day to surprise her, and she was out of town.

They spoke on Facetime about 1 ½ hours before he was killed. He wanted to know when she was coming home because he had a surprise for her.

A short time later, Jemison received a phone call from a friend who said, “I think something happened to LaKevin.”

She would soon learn that her son did not survive.

She also learned the “surprise” her son had for her was that he was going to be a father. His girlfriend, however, lost the baby after Debruce was killed.

Jemison hopes there will one day be answers.

“I just want to know why?’’ she said. “Was it even worth it to end a life?”

Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.