The loss of an innocent child has to be one of the worst crimes against humanity and nature. This compounds itself when the loss comes from a senseless crime that could have in one way or another prevented.
It instantly ignites the most heated of debates that our country faces daily. The first being crimes and punishment, followed by the capital punishment debate, the mental health debate, and finally, the stricter gun control debate.
According to the statistics website, the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 260 gun-related fatalities of children in the US so far in 2020.
None is more tragic than the recent demise of Five years old Cannon Hinnant of Wilson, North Carolina.
According to the Wilson Police Department, they were dispatched to the 5100 block of Archers Road because of a reported shooting.
However, when they made it to the scene, they realized it was a young boy who appeared to have suffered a gunshot wound. The police officers at the scene and emergency personnel tried to perform CPR while they transported him to the Wilson Medical Center. However, tragically, he did not make it and succumbed to his injuries.
This story, which was already tragic, turned even weirder when the father of the child told his story to the local news and CNN affiliate WRAL.
According to Mr. Austin Hinnant Cannon’s father, he was in the house when he heard a gunshot and his son screaming outside. He ran out only to see his son bleeding from the head; and he rushed to cradle him in his arms while he screamed for help.
That’s when he saw the second chilling scene, as his neighbor 25 years old Darius Sessoms was frantically pacing back and forth in his yard with a gun in his hand before driving off. He said the young man seemed enraged at something and was very agitated.
What makes this even more perplexing is that the two neighbors have always been friendly with each other and did not have any sought of problems with each other.
Mr. Austin claimed that in the seven years or so that they had been neighbors, they had actually socialized and had invited the culprit and his parents over for dinner, and they had a beer together on occasion in the past.
A neighbor who was also a witness a Ms. Doris Lybrand said she witnessed Darius jump over from his yard. Walk up to the boy and pull the trigger before running back to his house. And in her shock, she thought it must have been a game of some sought because it just did not register the events unfolding in front of her eyes for several minutes.
A GoFundMe campaign, which is named “Justice for Cannon,” has been able to raise over $288,684 in about a week and social media users on Twitter on Thursday, August 13, using the hashtag #SayHisName tried to highlight Cannon’s tragic story online.
Meanwhile, Darius Sessoms was arrested, charged with first-degree murder and he is being held without bond.
Cannon’s grief-stricken mom Bonny Waddell took to social media to clarify misinformation about the case and, in her words, condemn the man who took her baby from her “This sorry excuse as a human being will rot in hell” she said.
Source: https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
