Hours before attending his son’s funeral on Thursday, Cannon Hinnant’s father sat down with a local news station to talk about the murder of the 5-year-old boy, allegedly at the hands of a neighbor who was angry at the boy walking on his lawn.
Austin Hinnant reminded WRAL how Cannon and his sisters, aged 7 and 8, played outdoors at their home in Wilson, North Carolina, on Sunday when it happened.
“They were playing in the backyard like any other day,” Hinnant said, and told the station that he was entering his space when he heard the fatal shooting.
Hinnant ran out and saw Cannon on the ground.
“The first thing that came to mind maybe it was that it fell off the bike,” he said. “The closer they got to him, the more he learned something much more serious.”
Police said eyewitnesses to the midday murder told them Cannon was driving his motorcycle when a neighbor, known as Darrius Sessoms, 25, walked towards the boy and shot him in the head at point-blank range.
Before the murder, Sessoms, now charged with first-degree murder, and Cannon’s father dined together, Austin Hinnant said.
“The Lord says that we love our neighbour. I’ve got a lot to eat. He was just looking to be nice,” Hinnant said, noting that his appointments have been good with the neighbors. “There was nothing between him and me, bad blood, what a feeling, so I had an explanation for why to do that.”
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Hinnant raised Cannon in his arms. “I shouted, “Someone, please save my son!” Help me save my son, please, ” he said.
A neighbor carrying an EMT bag ran alongside the boy and Austin knelt down to pray.
“You can’t believe what it’s like to hold your son in your arms with a gunshot wound to his head and his blood flowing into your arms,” he said.
Austin told WRAL that he could see Sessoms nearby, coming and going with the murder weapon still in his hand.
“I’m chasing him while I’m taking Cannon,” he said. “I was so full of rage, but I couldn’t leave my son. I was looking to be with my son.
Sessoms is believed to have fled in a 2019 Toyota Corolla. Police discovered him Monday night in a space in Goldsboro. The reason for the shooting is still unknown.
Sessoms has not yet filed the charges and it is unclear whether he had a lawyer on Friday.
“Everyone enjoyed Cannon, ” said the father. “He lit up the room.”
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A GoFundMe campaign established to support Cannon’s family through the grieving process describes the boy as a “precious angel” who was “merely doing what he would do any other day and that’s playing with his sisters, riding his bike, doing what kids do and all of the innocence that comes with being a child.”
The page says the circle of relatives “has faced pain because of this act of senseless violence.”