Samantha Cannon was 22 when she was found dead on January 23, 2022, inside a room at the Rainbow Motel on Medgar Evers Boulevard in Jackson, Mississippi. She and 21-year-old Kiera Poole had both been shot multiple times; the Hinds County Coroner ruled multiple gunshot wounds as the cause of death for each woman.

Authorities arrested 38-year-old Jermaine Darnell White and charged him with two counts of murder. Investigators say White had spent the day with Cannon and Poole and that the three had been using drugs together before the situation escalated and both women were shot. At the time of the killings, White was a convicted felon and reportedly wanted on a separate outstanding charge for illegal possession of a firearm.

Samantha Cannon was a mother of two; the deaths drew attention to violence at local motels and the role drug activity played in the incident. If anyone has information about what happened at the Rainbow Motel that day, please come forward.