The mother of Tony Sorokowski, a Winnipeg man who was fatally stabbed in his home last month, says she has been struggling to deal with his violent death.

Sorokowski, 50, had his throat slashed after a fight broke out between him and another man in the early-morning hours of Oct. 19 in Sorokowski's Transcona-area home, according to his mother, Lavana Gentray.

Sorokowski was rushed to hospital, but he died days later.

"He was the only son I had," Gentray told CBC News in a recent interview, as she began packing Sorokowski's belongings.

Gerald Mustard, 40, was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the incident.

According to police, Sorokowski had met Mustard at a bar, then invited him back to his place for some drinks.

When Mustard was asked to leave, a fight broke out and Sorokowski was stabbed in the upper body, police have said.

"I don't hate him. I hate the system that we can let this happen all the time," Gentray said.

Victim services agencies busy

Sorokowski's death is one of many cases in the Manitoba capital that are keeping the Winnipeg Police Service's victim services unit busy.

Const. Linda Parsons says the police unit received between 7,000 and 10,000 calls from victims' families last year.

That number is expected to be about the same this year, if not higher, she said.

"I would say it is probably maintaining. However, having said that, I think the level of violence has gone up," Parsons said.

The unit has 30 volunteers that make house calls to victims of crime and their families, but Parsons said it needs closer to 60 to handle the calls.

There have been 28 homicides reported in Winnipeg so far in 2012, and as that number grows, it means more cases for organizations that support victims' families.

Karen Wiebe of Manitoba Organization for Victim Assistance (MOVA), which supports the families of murder victims, says it wants to hire two more people this year to deal with those families as they go through the court system.

An additional challenge, she added, is finding staff who have been victims of crime themselves and therefore knows what grieving families are going through.