Boy, 12, killed on 4-wheeler

Cody Choate’s father, Damon Austin, said the boy had been riding ATVs since he was a young child and considered him an experienced rider.

Choate was riding in front of his 21-year-old brother on the railroad bed at dusk on Saturday. When the railroad bed came to an abrupt end, he plunged down a 40-foot embankment and hit a concrete pillar.

Both he and his brother were wearing their helmets, but the force of the impact killed him.

Choate’s aunt, Chrystal Brown, said a neighbor rushed to the scene.

‘The lady that found him, she said when she put her hand on him she felt him going to heaven,’ Brown said.

On Wednesday, dozens of mourners, including many fellow students from Watertown Middle School in Mt. Juliet, gathered for the burial.