The Nottoway County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of a five-year-old Blackstone boy — who once lived in Victoria — as a homicide.

On March 20, at approximately 8:29 a.m. dispatchers received a phone call from five-year-old Tyson James Tharpe’s mother requesting medical assistance for her son, according to a press release from the Nottoway Sheriff’s office.

According to the release, Nottoway emergency responders and a deputy responded to the call in Nottoway.

Tharpe was transported to Centra Southside Community Hospital in Farmville, where he was pronounced dead, police said in the release.

According to police, a medical examiner determined Tharpe’s cause of death to be blunt-force trauma.

Lt. Robert Jones, of the Nottoway County Sheriff’s Office, is investigating the death as a homicide, according to the release.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at (434) 645-9044 or Crime Solvers at (434) 645-7111.