Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Birmingham shooting death of a collegiate football player, and Birmingham police are asking for help in bringing justice to his family.

LaKevin Ralpheal Debruce, a 22-year-old senior defensive back and captain of his team at LaGrange College, was killed Nov. 18, 2023, in Ensley.

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 dead.

Debruce had come home to surprise his mother for her birthday.

“It’s hard to heal when you don’t what happened to your firstborn,’’ LaTanya Jemison said in a previous interview with Al.com.

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.

“He showed people he cared. That’s why everyone’s here. Right? Because he showed you what it meant to care about someone.”

“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.”

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.

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.

“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.”

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