A 5-year-old North Carolina boy was reportedly shot dead by his neighbor while riding his bike outside his home over the weekend.
Little Cannon Hinnant was playing outside his father’s house with his two sisters, ages 7 and 8, in the town of Wilson at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday when he was allegedly shot in the head by 25-year-old Darius Sessoms , WRAL.com reported.
The boy was taken to hospital but he could not be rescued.
Sessoms, who lives next to Cannon’s father on Archers Road, was later renovated in Goldsboro and is facing first-degree murder charges.
Police say the killing was not involuntary, although they did not provide a motive, according to the news release.
Witness Doris Lybrand told WRAL.com that Sessoms walked over to the little boy, put the gun to his head and pulled the tractor before returning to his own home.
“My first reaction was that he was playing with the kids,” Lybrand said. ‘For a second I thought,’ that can not happen. ‘People do not run across the street and kill children. ”
After realizing that the shooting was real and seeing Cannon’s father’s reaction, the woman said, she walked back into her house, locked the door and quickly called 911.
Another neighbor said Sessoms and Cannon’s father had dinner together Saturday night and that Sessoms was home earlier Sunday, according to WRAL.com.
A woman who claims to be a cousin of Cannon’s father, Austin Hinnant, created a GoFundMe page for the family and claimed in the bio that Cannon was shot “because he was driving in his neighborhood yard.”
“[A] sweet soul named Cannon Hinnant was taken out of this world for a senseless act, “wrote Christina Prezioso on the GoFundMe page. “A beautiful 5-year-old baby boy riding on his bike was shot by his neighbor point blank in Wilson NC.”
“One minute he enjoys his life, the next he ends it all because he rode in his neighbor’s yard,” reads the bio. “5 year old boys !! Nothing makes a parent grieve over the loss of their children. No child should ever steal their future from them. ”
Sessoms has had multiple counts of drug possession over the years, multiple counts of felony criminal mischief, and charges on his record for possession of stolen firearms, CBS17.com reported.
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