Sonya Massey ducked and apologized to an Illinois sheriff’s deputy seconds before he shot the black woman three times in her home, fatally shooting her in the head, body camera video released Monday shows.
Last week, an Illinois grand jury indicted former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, 30, who is white. He pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct.
The video confirmed prosecutors’ account of the tense moment when Grayson yelled across the counter at Massey to put down a pot of hot water. He then threatened to shoot her, Massey ducked, briefly stood up again and Grayson fired his gun at her.
Authorities said Massey, 36, had called 911 earlier to report a suspected prowler. Video shows the two officers responding shortly before 1 a.m. on July 6 to his home in Springfield, 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. They first circled the house and found a black SUV with broken windows in the driveway.
It took Massey three minutes to open the door after officers knocked, and she immediately said, “Don’t hurt me.”
She seemed confused as they spoke at the door, and she repeated that she needed help, referred to God and told them she didn’t know who owned the car.
Inside the house, the officers appeared exasperated as she sat on her couch and rummaged through her purse while they asked for identification to fill out a report before leaving. Then Grayson pointed to a pot sitting over a flame on the stove.
MORE: Family demands justice after fatal police shooting of Illinois woman
“We don’t need a fire while we’re here,” he said.
Massey immediately stood up and walked over to the stove, moving the pot near the sink. She and Grayson appeared to share a laugh over her pot of “boiling water” before she unexpectedly said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
“You better (expletive) not do it or I swear to God I’m going to (expletive) shoot you in the head.” He then pulled out his 9mm pistol and told her to drop the pot.
Massey responded, “OK, I’m sorry.” In Grayson’s body camera footage, he pointed his gun at her. She ducked and raised her hands.
Grayson was still in the living room, facing Massey and separated by a counter that separated the living room from the kitchen. Prosecutors said the separation allowed Grayson both “distance and relative protection” from Massey and the pot of hot water.
After Grayson shot him, Grayson discouraged his partner from getting a medical kit to save her.
“You can go get him, but it’s a headshot,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do, man.”
He added: “What else can we do? I’m not going to have boiling water thrown in my face.”
Seeing that Massey was still breathing, he relented and said he would get his kit too. The other deputy said, “We can at least try to stop the bleeding.”
Grayson told police: “She had boiling water and came at me with boiling water. She said she was going to rebuke me in the name of Jesus and came at me with boiling water.”
At a news conference Monday afternoon, the family’s attorney, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, called Grayson’s “revisionist” rationale “disingenuous.”
“She needed a helping hand. She didn’t need a bullet to the head,” Crump said of Massey.
Asked why Massey told Grayson, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” Crump said she had been in treatment for mental health issues. He noted that she invoked God’s name early in the encounter and asked for her Bible after the officers entered.
At Massey’s funeral on Friday, Crump said the video, which he and his family had already viewed, would “shock the conscience of America.”
Massey’s father, James Wilburn, demanded that the county’s justice system be completely open in its investigations and prosecutions and transparent with the public.
“The only time I’m going to see my baby again is when I leave this world,” Wilburn said. “And I don’t want anyone in America to ever join that league again.”
Grayson, who was fired last week, is being held in the Sangamon County Jail without bail. If convicted, he faces prison sentences ranging from 45 years to life for murder, six to 30 years for assault and battery and two to five years for disorderly conduct.
His lawyer, Daniel Fultz, declined to comment Monday.
The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office released a statement on Facebook, saying in part, “…Massey lost his life because of an unjustifiable and reckless decision…” adding that “Grayson had other options available…” and “…his actions were inexcusable…”
Statement by President Biden on the Shooting of Sonya Massey
In a statement, President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for Massey’s family “as they deal with this unthinkable and senseless loss.”
“Sonya Massey, a mother, friend, daughter, and beloved young Black woman, should be alive today,” the statement said. “Sonya called the police because she feared a potential intruder. When we call for help, all of us as Americans, no matter 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 police officer reminds us that too often, Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways that many of us do not.”
Massey’s death is the latest example of black people being killed by police in their homes in recent years.
In May, a Hispanic Florida sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Roger Fortson after the Air Force sheriff answered the door of his Fort Walton Beach home with a handgun pointed at the ground. The deputy, Eddie Duran, was fired.
In 2019, a white police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson through the back window of her home after responding to a non-emergency call that Jefferson’s front door was open. Aaron Dean, the former officer, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
In 2018, a white Dallas police officer shot and killed unarmed Botham Jean after mistaking his apartment for hers. Former police officer Amber Guyger was convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Crump has represented families in each case as part of his efforts to hold police accountable for the killings of Black people. Crump also represented the relatives of Earl Moore, a Springfield man who died after being strapped face down on a stretcher in December 2022. Two emergency medical workers are charged with murder in that case.
Sangamon County Deputy Sean Grayson Charged with Murder
Prosecutors alleged that after Grayson allowed Massey to move a pot of water that was heating on the stove and she set it on a counter, Grayson then “aggressively yelled” at Massey over the pot and pulled out his 9 mm pistol. Massey then raised his hands in the air, said “I’m sorry,” and took cover before being shot in the face. Grayson also discouraged the other deputy from getting his medical kit, prosecutors said.
“The other deputy continued to render aid to Ms. Massey and remained with her until emergency services arrived,” First Assistant District Attorney Mary Rodgers wrote. Grayson “did not attempt to render aid to Ms. Massey at any time.”
Grayson, 30, who is white, was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. He pleaded not guilty at his first court appearance Thursday.
More than 30 members of the Massey family and their supporters packed the courtroom seats last week, several of whom declined to comment afterward.
No one disputed the state’s assertion that the body camera footage of the incident supported the first requirement of Grayson’s detention order, that there be a strong prima facie case that the acts alleged in the indictment occurred.
“At no time did this defendant display anything other than callousness to human life,” Rodgers said.
Defense attorney Dan Fultz argued for Grayson’s release, saying the state’s arguments didn’t meet other arguments. Fultz said Grayson posed no threat to the community because he complied with the rules and turned himself in within a half-hour of his arrest warrant being issued.
He said the Army veteran owns a home in Riverton, a community just east of Springfield, with his fiancée, whom he plans to marry this fall. His detention would be a burden on the county, he said, because of stage 3 colon cancer diagnosed last fall that requires special medical treatment.
Fultz requested Grayson’s release on the conditions that the weapons be removed from his home, that he undergo a mental health evaluation and that he be placed on 24-hour electronic monitoring.
Cadagin ruled that Massey, weighing about 110 pounds (50 kilograms), posed no threat to Grayson, who was 6 feet 3 inches (190 centimeters) tall and weighed 228 pounds (103 kilograms), and who was armed and accompanied by another deputy, and after shooting him, refused to render aid.
Sheriff Jack Campbell said Wednesday that Grayson was fired because it was clear the deputy “did not act as he was trained or in accordance with our standards … With our badge, we accept a tremendous amount of responsibility, and if that responsibility is abused, there should be consequences.”
Ben Crump, Massey’s family attorney, said the charges were a “step toward justice for Sonya’s loved ones, especially her children, who have endured unimaginable pain and suffering since learning of this tragedy.”
As many as 200 people gathered at the Springfield NAACP building on Wednesday to express their support for Massey and his family.
“I am furious that another innocent black woman lost her life at the hands of a police officer,” the Illinoisan said. Governor JB Pritzker said in a statement: after the indictment.
Grayson is due back in court Aug. 26. He has been with the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department for about 18 months, Fultz said, after serving as an officer in several other central Illinois police agencies for about seven years before that.
