Authorities have released shocking video that shows a white police officer in Illinois shooting a Black woman – who called police in fear of a home intruder – in the face, killing her.
Sonya Massey, 36, was killed early on the morning of 6 July by Sean Grayson, an Illinois sheriff’s deputy, in her home in Springfield, the Illinois state capitol.
Massey, whom her daughter confirmed was paranoid-schizophrenic, had called police because she thought someone was trying to break into her home. When police arrived, they began looking into Massey’s home with flashlights, a neighbor, Cheryl Evans, told the Guardian. Evans wondered why police had not knocked on her door, as they typically have done in the past when searching for suspects. Eventually, Grayson, who is white, and his partner entered the home where they began speaking to Massey.
After an initial discussion and request for Massey’s driver’s license, Grayson spotted a pot of boiling water on the stove and ordered Massey to remove it to avoid starting a fire. In doing so, Massey asks the officers – who visibly distance themselves from her as she goes to handle the pot – why they moved away from her.
“Where you going?” she asks them.
“Away from your hot steaming water,” Grayson answers, with a laugh, before Massey responds: “Away from the hot steaming water? Oh, I’ll rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
With his gun drawn, Grayson closed the distance between himself and Massey, who was beginning to kneel behind a counter with her hands up.
“You better fucking not, I swear to God I’ll fucking shoot you right in your fucking face,” Grayson warned.
Massey can be heard saying, “I’m sorry,” as Grayson continues to advance. “I’m sorry,” she says again as Grayson fires three shots, striking her with a bullet below the eye that exited from the back of her neck.
As Massey lay dying on her kitchen floor, Grayson says he’ll go get his medical kit to render aid.
“That’s a headshot. She’s done,” Grayson says before going to get the med kit.
As the pair stand there with their guns still drawn, Grayson says: “I’m not taking a bullet out of her fucking head,” then points out that the water from the pot had reached his feet.
“What else can we do?” Grayson asks his partner. “I’m not taking hot boiling water to the fucking face.”
The footage, shown here, may be distressing to some viewers.
Grayson’s partner tends to Massey and at one point says, “she’s still gasping” and wonders what’s taking Grayson so long with the medical kit. When paramedics and other officers arrive, one can be heard asking, “where’s the gun?” Grayson replies that Massey had a pot of boiling water and threatened to rebuke him in the name of Jesus. Paramedics took her to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Grayson has been arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder and is being held without bond until his trial is set to begin. It is exceedingly rare for police officers to be charged with murder in the death of a citizen, and hasn’t occurred in such a high-profile case since the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
“When I watched the George Floyd tape, it pissed me off,” said Tiara Standage, a Springfield resident who is Black and has helped Massey’s family in recent weeks as they have navigated legal remedies and media coverage. “When I watched this, it pissed me off even further.”
In the immediate aftermath of the video going public, Joe Biden issued a statement calling Massey “a beloved mother, friend, daughter, and young Black woman” who “should be alive today”.
“Sonya called the police because she was concerned about a potential intruder. When we call for help, all of us as Americans – regardless of who we are or where we live – should be able to do so without fearing for our lives. Sonya’s death at the hands of a responding officer reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not,” the US president said.
“Sonya’s family deserves justice. I am heartbroken for her children and her entire family as they face this unthinkable and senseless loss. Jill and I mourn with the rest of the country and our prayers are with Sonya’s family, loved ones, and community during this devastating time.
I commend the swift actions that were taken by the Springfield state’s attorney’s office. While we wait for the case to be prosecuted, let us pray to comfort the grieving. Congress must pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act now. Our fundamental commitment to justice is at stake.”
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Massey leaves behind two teenage children, a son and a daughter. The pair played on a basketball hoop down the street from Massey’s home on the east side of Springfield, a racially mixed area of mostly low-income residents. Massey’s neighbor, Evans, said the mother of two was “such a nice girl”, who “was probably scared to death” when police began looking into her home with flashlights following her 911 call.
“I kicked myself for not asking them what they were trying to do over there,” said Evans, looking across the street to Massey’s home on Sunday afternoon, where flowers and cards had been left on her doorstep. “She was just scared and asked for help and they killed her.”
Massey’s death carries on a troubling legacy of racial violence in Springfield: Massey’s family said she is a descendant of William Donnegan, a Black man who was lynched by a white mob but survived during the city’s infamous 1908 race riots that took 17 Black lives over a two-day period in mid-August of that year. As a result of the violence and carnage, a group of white and Black Americans banded together to create the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Massey’s family said that the irony of having to reach out to the NAACP for help after her killing is not lost on them.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” a family member said, noting that Massey was taken to the same hospital, St John’s, as her ancestor Donnegan, where she was pronounced dead, and where Donnegan also died after being lynched.
Massey’s family is being represented by attorney Ben Crump, who compared Massey’s killing with the murders of Floyd and Emmett Till.
Crump said at a press conference on Monday afternoon alongside James Wilburn, Massey’s father, that there should be political implications for Massey’s unjustified killing.
“Just like George Floyd was a catalyst for the 2020 election, we believe this will be similarly impactful on the 2024 presidential election, especially for our Black community,” Crump said, adding: “There’s a narration to the tragedy. It’s just troubling on every level. Black women don’t get the respect and consideration they deserve in America.”
Wilburn said: “I want justice for my baby. You killed the wrong Black woman this time.”
If Grayson’s killing of Massey weren’t enough, Standage and others said, he not only didn’t try to help her after firing his fatal shots but tried to prevent his partner from doing so. Making matters perhaps even worse, someone appears to have tried to cover up the shooting. Police radio traffic obtained by the Guardian shows someone, apparently at the scene of Massey’s killing, saying her wound was “self-inflicted”. A dispatcher asks for clarification and a man confirms for a second time: “self-inflicted.”
Grayson also did not activate his body-worn camera until after the shooting, an apparent violation of protocol. He had been hired by Sangamon county despite two charges of driving under the influence, the Springfield State Journal-Register reported, and had worked for other law enforcement agencies in Illinois for seven years before arriving in Springfield.
Following Massey’s killing, Grayson was fired by the Sangamon county sheriff Jack Campbell and was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct.
Grayson’s defense attorney sought release for the deputy, who planned to marry his fiancee in the fall. Grayson’s lawyer also argued that the deputy’s colon cancer diagnosis and resulting medical treatments should prompt his release until trial. That plea was dismissed by Judge Ryan M Cadagin, who said Grayson posed a threat to society and should remain locked up until his 26 August trial because his actions showed “such a departure from the expectations of a civil society”, according to the Associated Press.
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Massey’s murder comes at a fraught time for the Black community in Springfield, said Antwaun Readus Sr, a local community activist. Following the January 2023 death of Earl Moore Jr, a Black man who was strapped to a gurney by paramedics as he suffered alcohol withdrawal and hallucinations and died of asphyxiation, activists worked with former mayor Jim Langfelder to ease tensions in the Black community, Readus said. Two paramedics were charged in Moore’s January 2023 death and await trial.
Then, in April 2023, Springfield elected Misty Buscher, a Republican, as the city’s new mayor. Since then, promises about refurbishing community centers in Black neighborhoods – where activities for youth are especially lacking in summertime, when violence rises, according to Readus – have gone unfulfilled, he said.
“Langfelder supported us after the ambulance debacle but the new mayor got into office and we have not heard anything from her,” Readus told the Guardian of the city’s former Democratic mayor and its new Republican one. “She had no boots on the ground [for Massey]; she just put out one statement.”
Readus and others gathered at a park not far from the state capitol building on Sunday afternoon, grilling food and watching children play on a playground. The night before, someone had burned a piece of playground equipment. Rumors spread that police were responsible in an attempt to dissuade protesters from gathering there after release of the video of Massey’s killing. Across the street, three buildings once used as community centers sat empty, Readus said.
A lack of recreational activities in Springfield’s Black neighborhoods is “75% of the problem” of violence there, Readus said. He criticized city officials for not spending enough money on community centers and other initiatives for Black youth while supplying police with new equipment.
“They militarized the whole police department,” Readus said.
As word spread through the Black community and the city of the shocking contents of the video showing Massey’s killing, Readus worried about its impact.
“The whole country can go upside down tomorrow,” he said.
