Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Mother Of Slain 5-Year-Old Demands Justice For Her Son, Pledges To See Suspect 'Rot In Hell’
The mother of Cannon Hinnant, who was killed while playing outside with his sisters on Sunday, is demanding justice for her son.
A North Carolina mother is calling for justice after her 5-year-old son was fatally shot in the head.
Darius Nathaniel Sessoms, 25, was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree murder for the killing of Cannon Hinnant on Sunday, online jail records show. Police have not released a motive yet, but have confirmed that the shooting, which took place outside of Hinnant’s father’s home, was not random.
Following Hinnant’s murder, his mother, Bonny Waddell, took to social media to demand justice for her son.
“We will get our justice and I’m taking every damn body down right with him!” she wrote in one Facebook post, adding later, “I lost my child, I lost my innocent child, and no one can give me him back. I will burn this country down if it’s what it’ll take to see this man burn in hell. I’m ready to flip this county upside down.”
Officers with the Wilson Police Department were called to a residential neighborhood at around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday to investigate reports of a shooting, according to WNCN. Once there, they found Hinnant suffering from a gunshot wound; although first responders tried to save his life, he died from his injuries after being rushed to the hospital.
A neighbor who witnessed the shooting recalled seeing Sessoms, who lived next door to Hinnant’s father, come outside and go up to the child, putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger, WRAL reports. After shooting him in the head, he then reportedly fled the scene. Police arrested him the following day at a private residence in the Goldsboro area, according to local outlets.
Hinnant was riding his bike and playing outside with his two sisters before he was killed in front of them, WRAL reports. In a Facebook post, Hinnant’s mother disputed reports that her son’s shooting had anything to do with his riding a bike, writing, “This was not just because my baby was riding a bike!! Don’t let this social media and news fool you!”
“My heart has been taken from me,” she wrote in one post. She wrote in another, “This man will answer to me, that man will see me and my son through my face!! This sorry excuse as a human being will rot in hell.”
Hinnant’s family is holding a candlelight prayer vigil in his memory on Friday evening, according to a Facebook announcement.
Sessoms appeared briefly in court on Tuesday, where he decided to look into hiring his own lawyer, rather than having a judge appoint an attorney to carry out his defense, WRAL reports. He is scheduled to next appear in court on August 25, according to the New York Post.
