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Loading ...Gay man murdered sitting in car
11.17.2008 3:20pm EST
(Syracuse, New York) A 20-year-old man is charged with the unprovoked murder of a Syracuse man in what police say was a hate crime.
Moses Cannon, 20, was sitting in a car with his brother Mark, 18, about to enter a party they had been invited to by an acquaintance.Before they could get out of the vehicle, guests at the party came outside the house and began yelling homophobic epithets at them.
Syracuse Police Chief Gary Miguel said that one of the guests, Dwight DeLee, went into the residence and returned with a 22-caliber rifle.
Miguel said DeLee then put the rifle to the driver’s side window of that vehicle and fired one round.
“And that one round strikes Mark Cannon in the arm, and continues on and strikes Moses Cannon in the chest area,” Miguel told local cable news station News 10.
According to Miguel, DeLee fired at the brothers because Moses Cannon was gay.
“Our suspect took a rifle and shot and killed this person, wounding also his brother, for the sole reason that he didn’t care for the sexual preference of our victim. And isn’t that sad?” Miguel told the station.
Despite being shot, Mark Cannon was able to drive the car to the family’s home as his brother lay bleeding heavily in the front passenger seat.
Moses Cannon died a short while later.
DeLee was arrested on Sunday and charged with second-degree murder. At his arraignment on Monday, he pleaded not guilty. The district attorney’s office said it may add a hate crime charge prior to trial.
“I’m hurt. Angry, upset. Am I mad at the kid? Yes. Mostly, I’m upset with society. How do we let our kids get this angry this young? This was hatred,” Albert Cannon, Moses Cannon’s father told News 10.
Moses Cannon may have been transgendered rather than simply gay based on what I read (photo, comments) in the Syracuse papers. The perp by the way is also African-American and in light of the Prop 8 vote I think it is time to stop pretending that black American culture does not have a poisonous hatred towards LGBT people at its core. How is Moses’ death any different than if (s)he was killed by a Klasman for being black?
It is sad to hear this, but I’ve read alot of angry black men/women, saying that we will burn in hell, and so on & so on, from a gay rappers website. He told me to go there and see how people were writing in to show, how much support we had. I went to the site that(Deadlee) suggested and read threating and hateful attitude from the people of the church. It may sould like I’m blaming “black people”, I’m not doing that, but the emails that were sent, were from uneducated teenage punks that can’t even write, spell, or read what they were typing. It’s very sad to hear how hated we are, in the United States. Churches, Straight people, white people,hispanics, & black people hate us even more now, and that truly worries me. Am I going to stay inside and hide. HELL NO.
I don’t think that the African-American hatred is any more poisonous than the rest of American hatred. Though, even as a AA man, I do not understand how the majority of the AA culture does not understand that Prop 8 is about Civil Rights. They (we) should understand that if African-American’s right to vote was brought up for a popular vote, the vote would have failed miserably.
Re: Kris’ comment….
Please don’t stay inside. Also, don’t religate the hate to all blacks. You could easily do a google search on “Obama nig**r” and you would find lots of hate sites around “white” people’s hatred of “blacks” (full of every epepithet you could think. This nation still has a way to go with acceptance of other people’s differences.
OldFord – you very clearly see the “big picture”. The problem isn’t “X group hating on Y”; the problem is ANYONE who thinks it’s acceptable to hate, defame, and attack people because of ANY personal difference. Hopefully your reasoned mindset wins over the emerging generation of GLBT activists.
Sounds like it was a set-up by “the acquaintance”.
Is the message sinking in yet? I’m sure its just a matter of time before some castrated poster starts talking about all the sympathy and compassion we should be showing for the murderer. Get a clue people, this is war and people die in wars. How many candlelight vigils do we have to hold before this finally hits home? Arm yourselves, take self-defense courses because the next life you save might be your own or someone you love.
This is only the tip of what our Religious establishments, who supported yes on prop 8, have brought. Families are split, friends divided and economic warfare at its finest. I wonder what God they really worship.
This is a great day for the Catholic and Mormon churches as well as the Religious Right. It is just one more tragic day for Christians, gay, bisexual, straight and transgendered.
Put DeLee under the jail! I can’t WAIT to hear about how he was abused and had a hard life and perhaps touched in an inappropriate way, which is why he had to shoot the victim.
Whatever…DeLee will be someone’s punk or pit bitch in prison. Hope he learns to enjoy getting porked on a regular basis.
[Screw] the catholics and the mormons… this [jerk] should get the DEATH PENATLY. This was premeidtated murder and there is NO watering it down. The [punk] is a [freaking] loser and a danger to society. Until our wimpy [butt] courts start giving out punsihments WORTHY of the crimes that have been committed – this bullshit will continue! It’s a godo thing for this [freak] that I was not this kids father because he would already be dead!
isn’t organized religion just a wonderful thing?
All judeo/christianity has done since its inception is promote and provoke violence.
The Middle East has been and will continue to be hell on earth due to the judeo/christian religion.
In our own country, because of religion, we have seen the violence of freeing slaves, letting women vote and the slaughtering of gay people. Why?
JUDEO/CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
WHEN are we going to insist that the Constitution of the United States be enforced regarding freedom of religion–freedom from the excuse of the judeo/christians absolute conviction they have the inalienable right to IMPOSE their beliefs onto others.
My definition of oppression: Other people imposing their worldview on the rest of us.
Christian definition of oppression: Being prevented from imposing their worldview on the rest of us.
The Judeo/Christian religion in this country MUST be subdued.
I, for one, am tired of living in a theocracy driven and maintained by religious zealots that are any equal of any Middle Eastern cesspool.
The DA “may” add a hate crime charge? DEFINITELY ADD IT, FOR GOD’S SAKE! It was an unprovoked murder based on sexual orientation! Of course it was a hate crime! Seek the maximum punishment for this piece of filth.
People make me sick. They spew anti-gay rhetoric, gay bash and murder gays, and then they try to make themselves out to be the victims.
This is the slippery slope of disliking something or prejudging a group of people..Some one out there will take it and RUN with it! This kid has been picking up things that he sees on television he sees our own president say that he thinks a marriage is only between a man and a woman.. making us seem not legitimate. He sees all this and he gets the impression this is justified! there are no half measures of hate!! Some may just disagree or some may say it is immoral.. once you pass that judgment people like this 20 year old pick up on that and interpret in their own way. we need to be the country we tell people we ARE! STOP THIS!
I concur with Sarrellec. Religious tyranny must be stopped if we are to be treated equally in this god[darn] country (or any country for that matter).