Nearly $425k donated in fundraising effort after NC boy shot, killed while playing in yard

WILSON, N.C. (WNCN) — An online fundraising effort in the memory of a slain 5-year-old Wilson boy has raised more than $420,000 in less than a week.

Cannon Hinnant, 5, was shot and killed while riding his bike late Sunday afternoon on Archers Road in Wilson, police said.

His neighbor, Darrius Sessoms, 25, is charged with murder, according to police.

Cannon’s family said the boy was riding his bike in the front yard when he was shot at point-blank range.

A GoFundMe page was created Wednesday by Cannon’s grandmother, Gwen Hinnant.

“This family has faced unimaginable pain because of this senseless act of violence,” Hinnant wrote on the fundraising page that had a goal of $5,000, but had raised $424,937 by Friday afternoon.

Hinnant also said Cannon was just “doing what he would do any other day” when the shooting happened.

Family members said the little boy loved his bike and his two sisters.

“Just a kid trying to have fun in his own yard and something like this happens. It’s despicable,” Merrill Race, Cannon’s great grandfather.

“The words to explain … everything, he just loved everything. Everybody,” Lee Parker, Cannon’s stepfather said. “I could sit here for days, I just there are no words or no amount of money that’s going to bring him back.”

Hundreds were at Shingleton Funeral Home in Wilson Thursday to pay their respects to Cannon.

A community vigil that was planned for Friday evening has been postponed at the family’s request. They said they hope to hold some kind of gathering in about two weeks.