N.C. Mom Of 5-Year-Old Who Was Shot At Point-Blank Range: ‘I Want The Death Penalty’
Aug 16, 2020, 10:08 AM
(Photo: WRAL via CNN)
(Photo: WRAL via CNN)
(CNN) – A family is grieving for a 5-year-old boy who was shot to death in North Carolina.
Police said Cannon Hinnant didn’t die from a stray bullet or a neglected firearm. They said a neighbor walked up to the child while he was playing outside with his siblings and shot him in the head.
The community held a vigil for the boy on Friday.
“My baby didn’t deserve this,” said Cannon’s mother, Bonny Waddell. “He had the biggest smile, the biggest eyes.”
His smile and personality were infections, Waddell said. He loved go-karting and riding his bike.
Waddell said she lost a piece of heart along with Cannon.
“We lost a big piece of our family,” she said. “He changed all of our lives. He touched everybody that he know.”
It was a day that was too hard to recount, not only for Waddell but also for Cannon’s two sisters and 7-year-old aunt who watched him die.
“This man took my girls when he took my baby,” Waddell said. “They know (Cannon) is in a better place.”
While Darius Sessoms, 25, is in jail facing charges for killing Cannon, family and friends said there’s still justice they want to see.
“I want the death penalty,” Waddell said. “And I’m gonna seek it.”
“I agree with Cannon’s mother that we are going to seek the death penalty,” said his father, Austin Hinnant.
With a GoFundMe that is close to $500,000, the family plans to remember Cannon the best way they know how.
“We’ve discussed a memorial park for Cannon where kids can go and ride their bikes,” said Cannon’s grandmother, Gwen Hinnant, “because he loved that so much.”
While grief and questions weigh on Waddell’s heart, she said she knows there’s a greater plan.
“Cannon’s gonna change the world,” she said.
Sessoms has been charged with first-degree murder.
