KEENE, N.H. — Around a dozen friends of Christian Walker, the 17-year-old Franklin County Technical School student from Orange who was fatally shot in Keene last summer, rallied outside the Keene Police Station Wednesday morning while the victim’s family was inside, allegedly discussing a potential plea deal with the defendant’s attorneys.
“His name will be screamed from these rooftops,” said Christian’s sister, Dakota Walker. “Everyone in Keene will know Christian’s name and his story will be told. There’s no shortcuts, no easy ways out.”
The crowd outside the Police Station at 400 Marlboro St. waved signs with messages such as “Justice for Christian,” and attendees sported Orange sweatshirts with a photograph of the victim posing on his motorcycle. Walker’s mother, Ashley Walker, was ready to meet with the attorneys of her son’s alleged killer.
Ashley Walker explained that in the months since her son was shot and killed last June, she has not yet seen a police report, nor received any of her son’s belongings. She explained that her son’s alleged killer, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, recently turned 18. Thus, she hopes the defendant will be tried as an adult.
“We don’t know what the plea deal is yet and that’s what this meeting is for. We really won’t know anything until after, but the fact that they’re even trying to throw us a plea deal already is a little ridiculous,” Ashley Walker said in the station’s lobby. “The only thing we got was Christian’s death certificate — nothing else.”
Leaving the plea hearing meeting, Ashley Walker explained that she was advised not to speak to the press about the status of the plea deal.
Family members did note that they’re considering potential legal action related to how the juvenile defendant acquired a firearm.
“[The firearm] is essentially what the suit would be for,” explained Rebecca Burgess, a family member of Christian Walker. “It’s a matter of who was responsible for entrusting him with the weapon.”
New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, in a written statement released within days of the shooting, said Walker was found fatally shot at the Riverside Plaza parking lot on June 25 by police responding to a 911 call. He was taken to Cheshire Medical Center in Keene and was pronounced dead at 1:49 a.m.
Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Abigail Alexander conducted an autopsy and concluded the cause of death to be a single gunshot to the abdomen, according to Formella. The case has been deemed a homicide.
Less than a week after the shooting, the AG’s office, New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark Hall and Keene Police Chief Steve Stewart announced in a joint statement that a juvenile had been arrested and charged under the juvenile laws with second-degree murder in connection to Christian Walker’s death.
“Since the alleged perpetrator is a juvenile, the law precludes any further information from being released at this time,” the statement read.
Burgess explained that her family is advocating for the defendant to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“How far do you go to defend murder? You just don’t,” Burgess said. “It’s just not something that should have happened. I strongly believe that my brother’s killer should have life in prison because my brother is spending the rest of his life in heaven.”
A supporter of Christian Walker dons a sweatshirt in his honor outside the Keene Police Station on Wednesday. 
Orange/Athol area supporters of Christian Walker protest outside the Keene Police Station on Wednesday in the city where he was shot and killed last summer. 
A sign placed in honor of Christian Walker outside the Keene Police Station in the city where he was shot and killed last summer. 
Supporters of Christian Walker protest outside the Keene Police Station in the city where he was shot and killed last summer.
At a rally held in Athol last summer to remember Christian’s life and advocate for justice in the wake of his death, his mother said she remembers him as having the biggest heart. Despite facing bullying, Christian Walker would still see the good in people and “give the shirt off of his back to anybody, even if he didn’t know them.”
Christian’s passions included riding “anything with wheels and a motor,” such as motorcycles, four-wheelers and dirt bikes. He was part of the automotive technology program at Franklin Tech and would have been a senior this school year.
More than 300 people attended the summer rally in Athol. The family raised $850 through a raffle and by selling hats and shirts with “LLCW” printed on them, for “Long Live Christian Walker.”
“Christian was one hell of a kid, one of a kind. He had a whole life ahead of him. He was intelligent, wholehearted and charismatic. He was a never-ending box of surprises, from the words that came out of his mouth to the junk he brought home,” Burgess said at the rally. “Anyone that had the privilege of having Christian in their life could advocate for the passion he had for anything with wheels, his family and his friends. He was an amazing brother, son, grandson and friend.”