WILSON, N.C. — 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.
"My baby didn't deserve this," Bonny Waddell, Cannon's mother, told WRAL. "He had the biggest smile, the biggest eyes."
An infectious smile and personality, loved go-karting and his bike — that was Cannon Hinnant. His mother said she lost a piece of her heart on Aug. 9.
"We lost a big piece of our family," Waddell said. "We all. He changed all of our lives. He touched everybody that he knew."
It's a day too hard to recount, not only for her but 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 he's in a better place."
While 25-year-old Darius Sessoms 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 and I'm gonna seek it," Waddell said.
"I agree with Cannon's mother that we are going to seek the death penalty," Austin Hinnant, Cannon's father, said.
With a Gofundme that is close to $500,000 they plan 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 because he love that so much," Gwen Hinnant, Cannon's grandmother, said.
While grief and questions weigh on this mother's heart, she knows there's a greater plan.
"I love, I loved him," Waddell said. "Cannon's gonna change this world."
Sessoms is charged with first-degree murder.
