Video: A Community Reacts To The Death of An Aberdeen Teen

ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI) – Aberdeen leaders say it’s time for the community to come together.

Community leaders are working on bringing the community together to make sure another young life isn’t taken too soon.

“There’s always going to come at some point strife, you know, at this moment, we are in that particular season where we’re feeling like our back is up against the wall,” says Aberdeen Mayor Maurice Howard.

That battle comes after a senseless shooting took this man’s young life.

17-year old Quinton Walker, who would have been a senior at Aberdeen High School this fall.

“To see this happen to him, this way, is very horrible and heartfelt because he never bothered anybody,” says Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church Reverend Cedric Doss, Sr.

Doss says this tragedy hits home for him because he’s watched Walker grow up as a child and also has a son around the same age.

“Watching him from a young age, he was a humble, humble, young man. He wasn’t a troublemaker and to say that is to say that you don’t have to be a troublemaker for trouble to find you, but he was always respectful.”

Mayor Maurice Howard says Aberdeen will not stand for this type of behavior.

“You guys put the guns down and that you come together and love one another. Let’s build this community. Let’s not be so divided, but let’s come together and work as a unit to move Aberdeen forward.”

Howard and Doss both say it’s time to come together to make sure the city doesn’t lose another young adult to senseless violence.

“To reach out to the young people in this community, to let them know that there are better things to do than pull a gun and take somebody’s life. You can better yourself, you can become better, and you don’t have to pull a gun to take someone’s life to prove that you’re hard. You can get out and work hard and accomplish some things instead of jail time,” says Doss.

A community anti-violence rally and a vigil remembering victim, Quinton Walker, will take place later this week.

Rev. Doss says Walker’s funeral will take place at Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in Aberdeen.

A date hasn’t been set at this time.