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Cannon Hinnant: ‘I screamed,’ father says about 5-year-old son’s fatal shooting

WILSON, N.C. — The father of a North Carolina 5-year-old who was shot in the back of the head, first thought his son fell off his bike.

The closer Austin Hinnant got to his son, Cannon Hinnant, he knew it was much worse.

"I screamed, 'Somebody, please help me save my son! Help me save my son, please,'" Austin Hinnant told WRAL. "(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."

Longtime neighbor Darius Nathaniel Sessoms, 25, is accused of walking up to Cannon and shooting the boy in the head while he was riding a bicycle, investigators said. Sessoms was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree murder. He is in jail without bond. Police have not released a motive for the shooting.

Austin Hinnant said Sessoms was over for dinner Saturday night and the two even had a beer together.

"The Lord says to love our neighbor. I have plenty of food to go around. I just wanted to be nice," Hinnant said. "There wasn't anything between me and him, any bad blood whatsoever, for him to have a reason to do this."

A funeral for Cannon was Thursday. About 100 cars filled a North Carolina funeral home parking lot to honor and support the family. A vigil planned for Friday was postponed because the family said they needed time to mourn.

A GoFundMe account set up for the family has raised more than $650,000.