Zion Gibbs' mom reacts to judge granting bond to her son's accused killer: 'I'm angry'

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- The mother of 7-year-old Zion Gibbs is speaking out just one day after a Cumberland County judge granted bond to the man accused of killing her son in a 2024 drive-by shooting.

Two years have passed since Zion was shot while playing video games in his Fayetteville home, but for his mother, Myra Gibbs, the pain remains as fresh as ever.

On Thursday morning, Gibbs faced Antori Porter in court, the man charged with her son's murder, and learned that the judge set his secured bond at $750,000.

Porter had previously been held without bond since his arrest in December 2024.

Gibbs described the judge's decision as a gut punch. "If it was your loved one, what would you do? How would you feel if a judge granted the accused murderer bond, a possibility of getting out, and we're literally about eight months away from trial." she said.

Porter's defense attorney argued in court that he was not a flight risk nor a threat to the community.

However, state prosecutors told ABC11 in a statement: "We were adamantly opposed to any reduction from the beginning of the case till the present."

Gibbs says the new development has left her with more questions than answers. "There's a lot of anger and there's a lot of questions," she said. "I can barely look at him. I was angry."

Just after midnight on June 7, 2024, bullets tore through the Gibbs' home on Danish Drive.

The gunshots were so loud that they shook the doorbell cameras of nearby neighbors.

Gibbs, who was playing video games at the time, was struck and died three days later at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.

"It's one thing to hurt because I lost my son, but it's another thing when I look at my children and I can't help or heal them," Gibbs said. "It wasn't just me that found Zion on the level floor with a gunshot to his face. It was them too."

Gibbs, who now runs a nonprofit in Zion's honor, says she spends much of her time on advocacy work and caring for her surviving children, 20-year-old twins. "It's been a lot of check-ins, a lot of FaceTimes, a lot of like three, six, because I'm so paranoid now..."

In the months following Gibbs' death, Sierra Chambers was arrested on conspiracy charges and released on $100,000 bond. Porter was charged with first-degree murder in December 2024 and had been held without bond until Thursday's hearing.

After the judge's decision, Gibbs expressed her frustration: "Disgusted. Angry, confused. It made me feel like you don't care."

She says the pain is still there, two years later. "Hard is an understatement. It's been trying to learn how to live through it, trying to learn how to live through it without my son. And also trying to still be a mom to my 20-year-old, now 20-year-old twins that are still here."

Porter's trial is scheduled for March of next year. Gibbs says she is not done fighting for justice for Zion and for her family.

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