A NEIGHBOR who allegedly fatally shot Cannon Hinnant as the five-year-old was riding his bike will “face the death penalty”, predicts crime pundit Nancy Grace.
She was speaking on Fox News about Darius Nathaniel Sessoms, 25, who has been charged with murdering the North Carolina boy.
The man accused of executing Cannon had dinner with the boy's dad during one of two visits he paid to the family in the days before the shocking murder.
The revelation emerged as investigators search for a motive in the killing of Cannon, who was shot at point-blank range while playing in the yard of his father's home.
Nancy Grace said: “When you put the picture up just then of Cannon, he was five years old.
“He was set to start kindergarten this week.
"I think back on my children – they went to kindergarten and what a big day it was and now he’s gone forever."
She added: “I know that the families were friends.
"There’s never been any bad blood between them at all."
Speculating about a possible motive, she referred to family members recalling that “the little boy rode his bike into the neighbor’s yard, and the defendant comes out, holds the gun, and shoots the child point blank.”
She added: “I predict this will be a death penalty case."
Tucker Carlson replied that it was a "horrific crime".
Cannon's dad said he has lived next door to Sessoms and his parents for eight years, and he had had him over for dinner on the Saturday before the murder.
"The Lord says to love our neighbors. I have plenty of food to go around. I just wanted to be nice," the father told WRAL, also noting that he and Sessoms had sat on his porch drinking beer.
The dad said he never had any confrontations with Sessoms.
"There wasn't anything between me and him, any bad blood whatsoever, for him to have a reason to do this."
After the killing, Sessoms is alleged to have run back to his house and then fled.
He was apprehended in Goldsboro by members of the US Marshals Service.
Doris Lybrand, who witnessed the shooting, told the outlet Sessoms ran up to the boy, put the gun near his head and fired before running back into his house.
“My first reaction was he’s playing with the kids. For a second, I thought, ‘that couldn’t happen.’ People don’t run across the street and kill kids,” she told the outlet.
Lybrand said she realized the gun was real when she saw Cannon's father’s reaction to the shooting.
She quickly went inside her home, locked the door and tried to call 911.
“You don’t expect to see somebody shoot someone,” she added.
Sessoms has been charged with first-degree murder and his being held without bond, he is due in court on August 25.
Bonny Waddell, the boy's heartbroken mother, took to Facebook to express her grief.
“This was not just because my baby was riding a bike!” wrote the grieving mother. “Don’t let this social media and news fool you!”
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