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Man Indicted For Allegedly Shooting His 5-Year-Old Neighbor In Head, One Day After Sharing Dinner With His Family
Darius Nathaniel Sessoms allegedly shot Cannon Hinnant in the head as he was riding a bicycle outside his North Carolina home.
A North Carolina man accused of fatally shooting his 5-year-old neighbor in the head last year has now been formally indicted on a murder charge for the boy’s death.
A grand jury indicted Darius Nathaniel Sessoms, 26, on one count of first-degree murder on Wednesday for the August 2020 death of Cannon Hinnant, Durham outlet WTVD reports.
Sessoms ran up to Hinnant as the boy was riding his bicycle and playing with his two sisters outside his home in Wilson, North Carolina, according to authorities, allegedly shooting him in the head before pacing around with the murder weapon. He then fled the scene.
He was arrested in Goldsboro, which is located a little more than 25 miles away from Wilson, that same day, the Wilson Police Department stated last year. He has been jailed ever since without bond while facing the first-degree murder charge.
Sessoms had known the victim’s family for eight years. Just one day before the shooting, Sessoms had dinner over at the Hinnant family home. He also shared a beer with the child’s father out on the porch.
"There wasn't anything between me and him, any bad blood whatsoever, for him to have a reason to do this," Austin Hinnant, Cannon's father, told WRAL last year.
A month after the shooting, Sessoms’ girlfriend Aolani Takemi Marie Pettit, 22, was charged with felony accessory after the fact for allegedly providing him with transportation so he could get from Wilson to Goldsboro where he was detained.
The slain child was known for his big smile.
“Cannon was the type of kid that was always polite, kind of laid back, but he was a beautiful little kid,” his godfather Merrill Race said at his funeral, WTVD reported last year.
