A detention officer has been suspended after posting an insensitive comment in which he suggested that the 5-year-old who was shot in the head by his neighbor “should’ve ducked.
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Young Cannon Hinnant was shot dead by his neighbor, 25-year-old Darius Nathaniel Sessoms, while doing what he loved the most – riding his bike outside his North Carolina home.
According to the reports, Sessoms walked up to the young boy and shot him in the back of his head even though he allegedly had a good relationship with the family and he and Cannon’s father were sharing drinks just on the night before the shooting.
Following the young boy’s death and Sessoms’ arrest, a New Jersey detention officer, Rome Smith, has come under fire and eventually got suspended for making an inconsiderate comment about the shooting.
“He should’ve ducked. Y’all always trying to sneak diss and discredit a black person being killed innocently by police,” Smith wrote.
“Blame cannon’s parents for not watching him!!! F Y’ALL.”
Following a backlash, the insensitive comment was removed and Smith’s Facebook profile is believed to have been disabled.
As Cumberland County officials have also confirmed, the juvenile center detention officer has been suspended and action will be taken against him.
“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,” Joseph Derella, the serving Cumberland County Freeholder Director, said in a statement to NBC.
Previously, a series of people suggested that the race factor could play a role in the killing as they compared young Cannon’s death to that of George Floyd.
According to the victim’s parents, however, this isn’t a race issue. “This is not a race issue. This was… I don’t even know what it was. I know it wasn’t race,” Bonny Waddell, Cannon’s mom, said.
The heartbroken mother also took to Facebook to ask people to stop comparing the death of her son to that of George Floyd.
“THIS HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE AND DO NOT COMPARE THIS TO FLOYD!” she wrote in her post.
“MY SWEET CANNON NEVER SAW COLOR, HE LOVED EVERYBODY. HE WAS INNOCENT, LOVING … AND THIS CRUEL MAN TOOK HIM AWAY FROM US FOR NO REASON.”
Replaced!