The mother of a man who was fatally shot in Haverstraw spoke exclusively to News 12.

"That day he died," said Yolanda Lopez, of Garnerville. "A big part of me died."

Lopez is the mother of 29-year-old Cristian Alvarado, who was shot and killed earlier this month in Haverstraw. She spoke with News 12 Tuesday morning, days after a suspect was arrested for killing her son.

"They say that life gets easier as time goes by, that's a lie," Lopez said. "You're leaving me with a hole in my heart because yeah, I can see him in pictures, videos but I'm never going to hug him."

She says Alvarado was also a brother, a husband and a father to two boys.

"I left Chicago in 2010 to bring him here because I didn't want him to get killed by gun violence. I brought him here to have a better life," she says.

He was in the Haverstraw area taking care of his son.

"He had just finished dropping off his son at his grandmother's house, and he was on his way to get him an ice cream because his son wanted an ice cream," she says.

Yandie Martinez, 18, is accused of killing Alvarado.

Lopez claims Martinez tried to harm her son before the shooting.

"I don't know why they got into an altercation and I don't care because that doesn't give anybody the right to kill another person," she says.

As News 12 reported, Martinez was recently arrested by authorities in South Carolina and will be brought back to Rockland to face charges including second-degree murder.

"I want my son to get the justice he deserves even though like I said, him going to jail isn't enough," said Lopez.