Cannon Hinnant: New Jersey detention officer says boy 'should've ducked' while getting shot, gets suspended
CUMBERLAND COUNTY, NEW JERSEY: A detention officer who allegedly made some insensitive comments about the death of five-year-old Cannon Hinnant has been suspended, Cumberland County officials said. Rome Smith, an officer with the county’s juvenile detention unit, allegedly wrote on Facebook that Cannon, who was allegedly shot by a neigbor on August 9, “should’ve ducked”. Smith added, “Y’all always trying to sneak diss and discredit a Black person being killed innocently by police. Blame cannon’s parents for not watching him!!! F Y’ALL.”
The Facebook profile of Smith is reportedly not available now. However, soon after his post went viral, he was suspended. While county officials did not identify him by name, they condemned the comments as “shockingly insensitive and racist in tone”. “We will not tolerate County employees using social media to broadcast hateful messages. This is not who we are and we intend to pursue the strongest action available to us,” Cumberland County Freeholder Director Joseph Derella said.
Meanwhile, Smith, who has been enrolled in the state’s pension system for 26 years, did not issue any statement regarding the whole episode. It has been said that currently, he earns $56,678. This comes after an earlier report stated that Cannon’s father Austin Hinnant had dinner with his son’s alleged murderer a day before the tragedy. The two men also shared beers. The young boy was allegedly killed by Darius Sessoms in front of his minor two sisters. The 25-year-old suspect allegedly ran towards him with a gun in his hand before putting it to his head and firing.
Austin said: “We've been neighbors for eight years. We had just been cordial neighbors, like anybody else. We would speak when we saw one another and he may walk over and talk to me for a few moments and vice-versa." Speaking of the dinner together, the father said Sessoms “looked like he had a lot on his mind and I was cooking chicken on the grill so I invited him into my home... We're supporters of God and I just told him that, 'God tells us to love our neighbors’.”
Police have not said anything about the motive behind the killing, but some have suggested that the murder was racially motivated, since the victim was White and the alleged killer was Black. However, Cannon’s father has refuted these claims. “This is no racial issue,” Austin said as reported by the New York Post.
Cannon’s mother Bonny Waddell is seeking death penalty for Sessoms. “My baby didn't deserve this. He had the biggest smile, the biggest eyes. We lost a big piece of our family. We all. He changed all of our lives. He touched everybody he knew,” Waddell said, adding: “This man took my girls when he took my baby. They know he’s in a better place. I want death penalty and I’m gonna seek it.”
She also wrote on Facebook that the accused “will answer to me. That man will see me and my son through my face! This sorry excuse as a human being will rot in hell. I will burn this country down if that's what it'll take to see [the alleged shooter] burn in hell. I'm ready to flip this country upside down."