Five-year-old Cannon Blake Hinnant was shot and killed on August 9, 2020, in Wilson, North Carolina, while playing in a neighbor’s yard with his two older sisters. According to reports, Cannon rode his bicycle onto the next-door neighbor’s property at about 5:30 pm and was shot at point-blank range. He was taken to Wilson Medical Center but died of his injuries. The motive remains unknown.

Darius Nathaniel Sessoms, 25, was arrested within 24 hours and later charged with first-degree murder. The indictment was returned by a grand jury on December 22, 2021; Sessoms initially pled not guilty at a January 26, 2022 court appearance. In December 2022 he entered an Alford plea and received life without parole. Aolani Takemi Marie Pettit, Sessoms’s girlfriend, was arrested and charged with felony accessory after the fact; she later pled guilty to obstruction of justice and received a suspended sentence and supervised probation.

The community has held memorial events in Cannon’s honor, including a playground renovation and a lantern vigil where attendees wore his favorite color, orange. Does anyone have details about the events that brought the community together or knew Cannon and his family?