Family and friends gathered Thursday to reassure a little North Carolina boy who always had a smile on his face – because the motive for his senseless murder over the weekend remained a mystery.
“[You] can not imagine what it is like to hold your son in your arms with a gun to his head, and his blood runs down your arms, “Austin Hinnant told WRAL-TV before the funeral for his 5-year-old son Cannon.
Kanon Hinnant, 5.
(Hinnant family)
Darius Sessoms, 25, is accused of walking up to the boy late on Sunday afternoon and shooting himself in the head at point-low range, according to police and witnesses. Cannon was killed while riding a bicycle in his father’s yard in Wilson. The boy’s two sisters, aged 7 and 8, were with him when he was shot, according to reports.
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Hinnant told the station that he and Sessom were neighbors. The night before, he had Sessoms over to his house for dinner. They drank a beer together on the porch, he said.
“There was nothing between me and him, no bad blood, for him to have a reason to do so,” Hinnant said, reporting the station.
Mugshot for Darius Sessoms
(Wilson Police Department)
He said he walked to Cannon after hearing the gun from the house.
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“I cried, ‘One, please help me save my son! Help me God save my son, please,'” Hinnant said.
He said he saw Sessoms pass with a gun in hand, get in a car and then drive.
“I was looking at him when I picked up Cannon,” he said. “I was so full of anger, but I could not leave my son. I wanted to be with my son.”
A police spokesman said Thursday he had no information about a motive for the shooting, according to the station.
The station also reported that the death of the boy had reached far beyond the Wilson community.
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Cannon’s funeral Thursday drew hundreds of mourners to the Shingleton Funeral Home in Wilson.
“Cannon was the type of kid who was always polite, kind of relaxed, but he was a wonderful little kid,” Cannon’s grandfather, Merrill Race, told the station outside the funeral.
Police said Sessoms is accused of first-degree murder and was held without bail.
WRAL reported interviews from Sessoms’ parents, who said they were deeply saddened by what happened to Cannon.
They said they believe her son was addicted to drugs and had hallucinations at the time of the shooting, the station reported.
