This story was originally produced by the Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Those close to the teenager who was fatally shot in a Keene shopping plaza early Wednesday morning grieved his loss as police continue to investigate what authorities have deemed a homicide.
As of late Thursday afternoon, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office had released sparse information about the killing of Christian Walker, of Orange, Mass., which occurred in the Riverside Plaza on Winchester Street. The 17-year-old died of a single gunshot wound to his abdomen and was pronounced dead at Cheshire Medical Center on Wednesday morning just before 1:50, the AG’s office said in a news release that afternoon.
The release said everyone involved in the shooting had been identified, but as of Thursday afternoon, authorities had not disclosed the name of the suspected shooter or said whether this person was in custody. The Keene Police Department deferred questions to the AG’s office. Michael Garrity, a spokesperson for that agency, said he had no further information to release on Thursday.
The Attorney General’s Office has said there is no known threat to the public.
In the information vacuum, social media has been rife with speculation as to what happened in the Keene plaza early Wednesday morning.
Walker’s family is also wondering what happened. Rebecca Burgess, a family member, said loved ones had not received any information about the circumstances of his death.
“No one is telling us anything,” she said in a Facebook message. “But we will not stop until we do and there is justice for him. This is so unfair, he had such a huge life to live so we won’t stop until justice is served.”
Burgess described Walker as wholesome, caring, charismatic, humorous and “one hell of a kid.”
“It’s soul-shattering,” she said of his death.
She said the family had planned to set up a memorial Thursday evening in the parking lot where Walker was shot. One that had been set up Wednesday night had been taken down by the following morning. Another memorial event is planned for Sunday in Athol, Mass.
Walker was a rising senior at the Franklin County Technical School in Turners Falls, Mass., and Superintendent Richard Martin said he had just finished his junior year in the school’s auto technology program. Martin said Walker had a passion for four-wheelers and cars.
Martin said students who attend the school hail from beyond Franklin County, Mass., and some have come from the Monadnock Region.
“It is a tragic loss to our school community,” Martin said.
“He passed well before his time.”
This week’s shooting was the third in the Elm City in less than a year, and the only one to result in a death. Roughly 10 months ago a shooting in downtown Keene left a man with non-life-threatening injuries. No one was charged in that incident. Another shooting occurred at the end of September on Gilsum Street, causing a man to suffer non-life-threatening injuries and leading to the arrests of two people.
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