ATHOL — Ashley Walker woke up early on June 25 feeling unsettled. Her son, Christian, hadn’t returned home and his car wasn’t in the driveway.

“Of course, as a mom, I text him, ‘Where are you?’” she told the Recorder. “I went back in to lay down and I just couldn’t fall asleep.”

Suddenly, the dogs were barking outside her Orange home. Walker opened the door to find two Orange Police officers holding flashlights. They asked if she was Christian’s mother.

“I said ‘yes,’ and they said that Christian had been shot and I needed to get up to Cheshire Medical [Center] immediately,” Walker recounted. “I went in and woke my boyfriend up and I said, ‘We’ve got to go. Christian’s been shot.’”

The drive to the hospital was a blur for Walker, they were driving so quickly. Upon arrival, she found a dime on her car seat.

“My family has this really weird thing about dimes,” she explained. “Anytime when somebody’s passed in our family, we’ve always found a dime. I already knew something was not right. Call it mother’s intuition.”

At Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, New Hampshire, Walker and her boyfriend were directed to a family room after being told that the emergency room was off limits. An officer and investigator questioned her about her relation to Christian and her date of birth.

The officials then said to Walker, “This is never an easy thing, but Christian did not make it.”

“I lost it,” she said. “I was told I could go in and see my kid, but I was not allowed to touch him because he had to go in for an autopsy. I still touched his head. I rubbed his head and told him I loved him.”

New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, in a written statement released June 25, said that Christian Walker, 17, of Orange, was found fatally shot in a parking lot on Winchester Street in Keene early that morning by police responding to a 911 call. He 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.

On Monday, the AG’s office, 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 with 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.

After Ashley Walker and her boyfriend left the hospital on June 25 and returned home to Orange, the couple’s driveway was flooded with people seeking answers she still doesn’t have.

“I know that there’s a lot that they can’t say, but I feel like I’ve just been left in the dark,” Walker said.

“It’s been like pulling teeth, trying to get answers,” agreed family member Rebecca Burgess. “No parent, let alone no family, should have to do that. In a time like this, [they] should not have to worry about making sure they call somebody to get answers or to be updated on their child being killed.”

Walker has heard from investigators twice, she said on Sunday. The first call informed her that her son’s body had been released and she needed to make funeral arrangements. The second call involved questioning about Christian’s presence in Keene, if she knew his friends and if he had access to firearms. Walker also noted she does not have any of her son’s personal belongings, which she hoped to keep.

“There needs to be justice for Christian,” Walker said. “Christian was the sweetest kid. He always tried to see the good in everybody. So now, I think, is the time for the communities to come together and have justice for Christian.”

’Just a great kid’

Christian Walker was born Feb. 10, 2008, at Heywood Hospital in Gardner as an “ice storm baby.”

“We had a wicked bad ice storm, and I didn’t think anybody was going to come and visit me, and everybody showed up,” Ashley Walker fondly recalled. “I told them, ‘Don’t make me laugh.’ I’m holding a pillow on my stomach and they did the stupidest stuff and made me laugh so hard. I though I was just going to explode.”

Christian Walker had a “great childhood.” He was described as “very funny” and able to make others laugh. Even as a youngster, he enjoyed his toys, trucks and bikes.

“He had a smile that could light up the world,” Ashley Walker said.

One of her fondest memories of her son was when he learned to do wheelies on a dirt bike or four-wheeler at 14 years old.

“It was crazy and I was terrified,” she admitted.

His mother remembers him as having the biggest heart. Despite facing bullying, Christian Walker would still see the good in people and would “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 County Technical School in Turners Falls and would have been a senior in the fall.

“He was a master at wheeling and dealing, let’s put it that way,” Ashley Walker said with a laugh. “He got very bored with something very quick and always wanted something faster, bigger. He would bring home so many projects.”

School sports or extracurricular activities weren’t Christian Walker’s focus, and he often tried to skip gym class. But in his shop, he was satisfied, until it came to working on his own projects, which would make him say, “I don’t want to be a mechanic.”

“But he was good at it,” Ashley Walker said. “He was always willing to take advice from others and try to utilize that into whatever he was doing, even though he would get very frustrated with other people because he thought he knew everything.”

The tech school notified faculty and staff about the incident at around 4 p.m. on June 25, according to Superintendent Rick Martin. He called the Walker family after learning of the student’s death at around 1 p.m. that day and then contacted Care Solace, the district’s mental health counseling firm, as well as a contractual social worker.

Franklin Tech automotive technology teacher Dave Chagnon, who taught Christian Walker for the last three years, described him as a “happy-go-lucky, fun guy,” who loved working on motorcycles.

“He was really a hands-on learner and he really loved motorcycles. This guy, he seemed like he had a new motorcycle every week. He’d have off-road bikes, on-road bikes, four-wheelers and he got to bring them into the auto tech [program] and work on them. He was just really inquisitive,” Chagnon said. “What I remember most about Christian is him just having some big dreams. He wanted to have and do fun things in life and it’s just really such a shame, he’s not going to be able to do them.”

Christian Walker’s post-graduation plans included either attending the Motorcycle Training Institute (MTI) in Florida to enhance his skills or becoming a diesel mechanic at Advantage Truck Group (ATG).

Outside of school, he loved being with his family and friends.

“He was just a great kid,” Ashley Walker affirmed. “That’s really all you can narrow it down to, was he was just a great kid.”

The depth of Christian Walker’s “big heart” was evident as communities gathered for a memorial in Keene on Thursday, June 27, and later for a car meet on Sunday outside Hobby Lobby in Athol. Ashley Walker said she didn’t know half the people who attended the events in her son’s honor, but seeing the impact he made on them was “just amazing.”

“Every story they’ve told me, he’s just touched their lives in one way or another,” Ashley Walker said.

More than 300 people attended the car meet 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.”

Burgess also created a GoFundMe, which has collected more than $9,000 as of Monday with 178 donations ranging from $5 to $500. The fundraiser can be found at gofundme.com/f/md3dv-help-christians-family-after-tragic-loss. The money will be used to cover funeral expenses and to fix up a project truck Christian Walker had, which will be inherited by his younger sister, Willow 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. “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.”

Reporter Anthony Cammalleri contributed to this article.