By Rob Kuznia. Photographs by Andrea Ellen Reed for CNN

Updated 8:06 PM EDT, Sun September 25, 2022

CNN  —  Marnette Gordon was doing laundry at home in Minneapolis one summer morning last year when a call came from her 36-year-old son.

She figured her son, Telly Blair, was checking in to see if she wanted a soda from a gas station down the street, where he often went for fuel and snacks.

“Mom, I’ve been shot,” he said. “Call the police!”

Marnette, her other son Tamarcus and his 12-year-old daughter rushed to the gas station from their home in the city’s north side, a part of town long beset by violent crime.

Blair’s family came upon his blue 1986 Chevy Caprice at pump No. 5 — beating police and paramedics by a few minutes, they said — only to find him slumped in his car, bleeding from multiple bullet wounds in his chest. A 17-year-old male in an orange hoodie had fired nine rounds from a handgun into Blair’s car before running off.