North Carolina boy Cannon Hinnant, 5, laid to rest after senseless murder: You 'can't imagine what it's like'
'[You] can't imagine what it's like to hold your son in your arms with a gunshot wound to the head'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Family and friends gathered Thursday to lay to rest a little North Carolina boy who always had a smile on his face -- as the motive for his senseless murder over the weekend remained a mystery.
"[You] can't imagine what it's like to hold your son in your arms with a gunshot wound to the head, and his blood is running down your arms," Austin Hinnant told WRAL-TV before the funeral for his 5-year-old son Cannon.
Cannon Hinnant, 5. (Hinnant Family )
Darius Sessoms, 25, has been charged with walking up to the boy late Sunday afternoon and shooting him in the head at point-blank range, according to police and witnesses. Cannon was killed as he rode a bike in his father’s front yard in Wilson. The boy's two sisters, 7 and 8 years old, were with him when he was shot, according to reports.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NORTH CAROLINA MAN ACCUSED OF SHOOTING 5-YEAR-OLD BOY IN THE HEAD: REPORT
Hinnant told the station he and Sessoms were next-door neighbors. He had Sessoms over to his house the night before for dinner. They drank a beer together on the porch, he said.
"There wasn't anything between me and him, any bad blood whatsoever, for him to have a reason to do this," Hinnant said, the station reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mugshot for Darius Sessoms (Wilson Police Department)
He said he ran to Cannon after he heard the gunshot from inside the house.
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"I screamed, 'Somebody, please help me save my son! Help me God save my son, please,'" Hinnant said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He said he saw Sessoms pacing with a gun in his hand, get in a car and then drive off.
"I was looking at him as I was picking up Cannon," he said. "I was so full of rage, but I couldn't leave my son's side. 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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The station also reported that the boy’s death 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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Cannon was the type of kid that was always polite, kind of laid back, but he was a beautiful little kid,” Cannon’s grandfather, Merrill Race, told the station outside the funeral home.
Police said Sessoms has been charged with first-degree murder and was being held without bail.
WRAL reported interviewing Sessoms' parents, who said they were deeply saddened by what happened to Cannon.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}They said they believe their son was on drugs and having hallucinations at the time of the shooting, the station reported.