Mother of 5-year-old boy fatally shot while playing outside wants death penalty for alleged killer

The mother of a 5-year-old boy who was fatally shot while playing outside his North Carolina home last week wants his alleged killer to get the death penalty.

Bonny Waddell told news station WRAL that she plans to “seek” the death penalty after her son, Cannon Hinnant, was shot on Aug. 9.

“We lost a big piece of our family,” Waddell told the TV outlet. “We all. He changed all of our lives. He touched everybody he knew.”

Darius N. Sessoms, 25, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting.

Cannon’s father, Austin Hinnant, said Sessoms has been his neighbor for eight years, and that they had dinner together the night before the shooting.

“There wasn’t anything between me and him, any bad blood whatsoever, for him to have a reason to do this,” he told WRAL.

Cannon’s family says the boy was playing with his sisters when the shooting occurred.

A GoFundMe page shared online to help cover funeral service expenses has received more than $750,000 in donations.