Mainstream media outlets have yet to cover the brutal Sunday night execution of a five-year-old North Carolina boy named Cannon Hinnant, allegedly at the hands of 25-year-old Darius Sessoms, sparking the hashtag #SayHisName to trend on social media Thursday morning.
As The Daily Wire reported on Tuesday, Sessoms, who is black, allegedly walked up to young Hinnant, who is white, and shot him in the head at point-blank range in front of the child’s 7- and 8-year-old sisters.
Sessoms lives next-door to the victim’s father in Wilson, North Carolina.
CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, and MSNBC, as of Thursday morning, have yet to cover the attack. Fox News has covered the tragic news.
Some have argued that the lack of coverage is because of the races of the victim and the alleged murderer.
On Tuesday, author and Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh brought attention to the murder via Twitter, using the now-viral phrase, “say his name.”
“Say his name. 5 year old Cannon Hinnant was executed in cold blood while riding his bike,” posted Walsh. “The accused killer is Darius Sessoms. He allegedly walked up to the boy and shot him dead in front of his sisters.”
“Reverse the races and this is the only thing anyone talks about for a month,” he argued.
The hashtag took off by Thursday, as people grew frustrated from the lack of coverage.
“Have any mainstream media outlets covered Cannon Hinnant yet?” asked Informed Dissent host Leonydus Johnson. “The deception in selective reporting is their most potent weapon because it drives availability bias which, in turn, distorts reality. It is the same as lying. Just imagine if the races were reversed. #SayHisName.”
Actors James Woods and Antonio Sabáto Jr. posted, “Cannon Hinnant #SayHisName.”
“You should know who Cannon Hinnant is and it’s an absolute disgrace that you don’t,” said radio host Jesse Kelly. “The American media is putrid.”
As noted by The Daily Wire, Sessoms, who took off in a black vehicle after the shooting, was not apprehended until Monday by U.S. Marshals Service Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, Goldsboro Police, and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, according to a report from WRAL.com.
The suspect has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bond at the Wilson County jail.
Sessoms reportedly had dinner with the victim’s family on Friday night, two nights before the shooting, according to WRAL.com, and was over at the family’s house the afternoon preceding the murder.
“Our neighbor saw it,” one neighbor recalled, according to ABC 11 Eyewitness News. “She said he (Sessoms) just — the young man just walked up to the little boy who was just sitting on his bike.”
“I just don’t understand why he did it,” she said. “How can you walk up to a little boy point-blank and put a gun to his head, and just shoot him? How can anyone do that?”
Hinnant was supposed to start kindergarten next week.
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