Hundreds turn out for boy's funeral

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - The 11 year-old alleged bullying victim who took his own life last Monday was laid to rest in Springfield. Hundreds of mourners came to the Alden Baptist Church to say good-bye to Carl Walker-Hoover.

As the casket containing the body of the 11 year-old was tenderly placed inside the hearse, his classmates at the New Leadership Charter School wept as they embraced each other. They wore memorial shirts bearing Carl's likeness.

David Jackson, a 14 year-old who considered himself a mentor to the younger student, shared his feelings with 22News.

"I feel horrible that some kind of way I could have been there more for him. I just feel we had to lose another, he's only that we had to lose him," he said.

Ethel Hugerty, one of the mourners told 22News: "I'm very, very upset. I'm angry. I wish that something could be done before the young man took his life."

Carl's mom, Sirdeaner Walker had shared with 22News that her son was the victim of repeated bullying at school and the tragedy of him taking his own life could have been averted.