IL - Sonya Massey Shot To Death In Her Own Home by Sangamon County Deputy After Calling to Report a Prowler, Springfield 6 July 2024

[georgiajean]

News article which has summary of the incident within court paperwork. Summary is from the officer worn cameras.

Details from the night of Sonya Massey's death have been released

 

[tlcya]

I agree with all you have said @georgiajean. It was shocking how quickly things went from the deputy suggesting she remove the pot from the stove to her complying and then she said "I rebuke you in the name of . . ." to Grayson immediately following with drawing his weapon aiming and "you better not, I will shoot you in the F'ing face".

Sonya was clearly a bit troubled and fearful, but never was she aggressive in any way shape or form. She was completely compliant. This is a tragedy.

I feel bad for the other deputy who tried to render aid, had his camera on as he should have, and was visibly shaken afterwards.

As for Grayson and his repeatedly asking dispatch if they'd had 10-96 (mental health) calls to the address in the past and repeatedly reporting to arriving LEOs that she was 10-96, claiming she had thrown the boiling water at him and the other deputy, he knew. he knew what he did was so very wrong. He was already, within minutes of taking her life trying to build his backstory to defend the indefensible.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Are US cops not trained to shoot at the hands or legs in this situation, rather than a pot shot to the face? Wtaf. I’m shocked.

 

[tlcya]

Are US cops not trained to shoot at the hands or legs in this situation, rather than a pot shot to the face? Wtaf. I’m shocked.

they are trained to use the least force necessary to get the immediate threat. She never threatened to throw the boiling water at him, never raised the pot as if she was going to, had she dropped the pot she herself would have been scalded. It appeared to me she was trying to clear a spot on the counter between them to put the hot pot down.

He went full on aggressive, reached for his sidearm and advanced upon her while ordering her to drop the pot HE himself just directed her to remove from the stove. Just deplorable.

IF he genuinely felt threatened (which I personally doubt JMO) he should have gone for his taser, moved back and not advanced with gun drawn on her. The moment she ducked down behind the counter, even if he felt threatened, the threat was removed at that point. all MOO

 

[CoverMeCagney]

they are trained to use the least force necessary to get end the immediate threat. She never threatened to throw the boiling water at him, never raised the pot as if she was going to, had she dropped the pot she herself would have been scalded. It appeared to me she was trying to clear a spot on the counter between them to put the hot pot down.

He went full on aggressive, reached for his sidearm and advanced upon her while ordering her to drop the pot HE himself just directed her to remove from the stove. Just deplorable.

I just can’t fathom it @tlcya. Talk about a total overreaction, nobody is safe around someone that unhinged, I hope he’s jailed for life.

 

[STLBlues]

Are US cops not trained to shoot at the hands or legs in this situation, rather than a pot shot to the face? Wtaf. I’m shocked.

Shooting someone in the hand/arm or legs is very difficult even in a controlled (non-stressful) environment. Law enforcement are trained to shoot center mass (torso) in order to neutralize a threat.

That said, I could not watch the video with sound (at work) but I do NOT think this was a justifiable shooting based on what I saw.

 

[Mack the Knife]

I am so, so shocked. The situation was not tense. Ms. Massey was not acting erratic or aggressive. She is small, even feeble looking, holding a heavy pot of water several feet away from the deputies with a counter in between them. She moves the pot from the stove toward the sink, which is a movement in their direction, but at no point does it appear she is "coming at them" or going to try and throw the water on them. She starts saying she rebukes them, but even that is more bizarre than threatening. Deputy Grayson is irked and about the water and perhaps weirded out by what Ms. Massey is saying, but even then he isn't raising his voice when he tells her he will shoot her in the face. He doesn't seem scared.

It's not clear at all why he raises his gun and points it at her. It's also not clear why he decided to turn his body cam on right before raising his gun. She lets go of the pot, placing it on the counter and says she's sorry and starts covering her head and ducking down. After she has already placed the pot down, he starts yelling, commanding her to drop the *advertiser censored***ing pot. The other deputy then pulls his gun and also tells her to drop the pot--he may have seen the pot holders in her hands, covering her face, and thought she was raising the pot in that split second. She is crouched down, and Deputy Grayson continues toward the counter, yelling, and shoots her. He yells at her to drop the pot two more times after shooting her in the head.

At no point was she threatening, at no point was she a threat. Deputy Grayson made no discernable attempts to de-escalate the situation, even just by taking a step back if he thought he was in the range of her throwing the water. There is absolutely nothing she could have done different, reasonable or unreasonable.

Horrifying.

 

[JMapes]

I'm devastated and outraged. Completely indefensible. All over hot water!? Hot water!? As previously stated, there was an entire counter, plus a what looks like some belongings stacked on the floor of the kitchen, creating even more distance between her (in the kitchen) and officers (on the other side of the counter, in the living room) while this interaction took place. If he felt so threatened by a pot of water, all he had to do was step back!! He's easily twice her size and fully dressed in specialized gear for *checks notes* firearm combat, but he thinks hot water is a murderable offense!?

There needs to be a serious investigation into how this lowlife , (and others like him), get hot-potatoed from agency to agency to agency until being put in the position to seriously harm or murder members of the community that they were sworn to protect. One bad apple my tush. MOO.

 

[spyblond]

I cannot even express my outrage over this. Time and time again we see LE use their power and authority to kill people. That's it.
May Sonya's memory live on and may we all do better in our advocacy to prevent this from ever happening again. I can't imagine her family's pain, knowing that their relative who was struggling with mental health was murdered in her home by the people she called to help.

 

[KMouse]

Sonya Massey's father, James Wilburn of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, tells the audience at his daughter's funeral July 19 he believes she is in heaven but that he was dismayed the sheriff's deputy who allegedly shot and killed her, Sean Grayson, was hired by Sangamon County despite the "red flags" in his past.

Wilburn condemned the state’s law-enforcement system “when you are allowed to resign and they recycle you.”

Court records showed that Grayson was previously charged twice, once in 2015 and once in 2016, with driving under the influence of alcohol in Macoupin County. He pleaded guilty to the 2015 charge and a judge found him guilty of the 2016 charge, records showed.

Former Springfield police chief Kenny Winslow, now executive director of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said misdemeanor DUI convictions don’t automatically disqualify someone from being hired as a police officer in Illinois.

According to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, Grayson worked at six different law enforcement agencies in Illinois since 2020.

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24852482/sean-grayson-charging-document.pdf

'Red flags' surrounded hiring of alleged killer

Sonya Massey's father cited Sean Grayson's DUIs; Ben Crump recounts woman's last words

www.illinoistimes.com

Illinois deputy charged with murder had previous DUI convictions in Macoupin County

Records show he has worked with six law enforcement agencies in Illinois since 2020.

www.ksdk.com

​

Sean P Grayson - 65149298​

Part-Time Law Enforcement Certification Date: 6/5/2021
Certification Status: Suspended

Employment​

Employer	Status	Hired Date	Separation Date
Sangamon County Sheriff's Office	Full Time	5/1/2023	7/17/2024
Logan County Sheriff's Office	Full Time	5/1/2022	4/28/2023
Auburn Police Dept	Full Time	7/20/2021	5/1/2022
Virden Police Dept	Part Time	5/20/2021	12/31/2021
Kincaid Police Dept	Part Time	2/4/2021	5/18/2021
Pawnee Police Dept	Part Time	8/11/2020	7/26/2021

ILETSB - Officer Lookup

www.ptb.illinois.gov

Things that make you go hmmmm. This is a very suspicious work history that screams red flags. Unfortunately when calling references it's difficult to get the real story other than 'they worked here from this date to that date'.

 

[vls12345]

I haven't watched it. But based on the descriptions, it's horrifying. And LE were the ones who directed her to the boiling pot in the first place, right?

If they were concerned about the pot/stove, why didn't one of them turn it off?

 

[sunflowermomma]

That is the most horrific video I have ever seen. Something must be done about the police's pattern of executing innocent Black people.

 

[Mama-dukes]

That is the most horrific video I have ever seen. Something must be done about the police's pattern of executing innocent Black people.

I seen the video and was like what the you know what that was horrible sad and your right

 

[Mama-dukes]

they are trained to use the least force necessary to get the immediate threat. She never threatened to throw the boiling water at him, never raised the pot as if she was going to, had she dropped the pot she herself would have been scalded. It appeared to me she was trying to clear a spot on the counter between them to put the hot pot down.

He went full on aggressive, reached for his sidearm and advanced upon her while ordering her to drop the pot HE himself just directed her to remove from the stove. Just deplorable.

IF he genuinely felt threatened (which I personally doubt JMO) he should have gone for his taser, moved back and not advanced with gun drawn on her. The moment she ducked down behind the counter, even if he felt threatened, the threat was removed at that point. all MOO

I agree with you i just heard of this from the video and he definitely was in the wrong no doubt about that just saying

 

[Rikissa]

Things that make you go hmmmm. This is a very suspicious work history that screams red flags. Unfortunately when calling references it's difficult to get the real story other than 'they worked here from this date to that date'.

I wonder how many hours per week he worked. The three oldest employments were part time, and I can understand working for more than one police department at the same time when only having a part time employment. But did he have both a full time and a part time employment from July 2021 to December 2021?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

That is the most horrific video I have ever seen. Something must be done about the police's pattern of executing innocent Black people.

I didn’t watch the video (I read the summary) so this is the first time I realised Sonya was black. Lightbulb moment, sadly.

 

[Cryptic]

Employer	Status	Hired Date	Separation Date
Sangamon County Sheriff's Office	Full Time	5/1/2023	7/17/2024
Logan County Sheriff's Office	Full Time	5/1/2022	4/28/2023
Auburn Police Dept	Full Time	7/20/2021	5/1/2022
Virden Police Dept	Part Time	5/20/2021	12/31/2021
Kincaid Police Dept	Part Time	2/4/2021	5/18/2021
Pawnee Police Dept	Part Time	8/11/2020	7/26/2021

He look like a poster image of a "tramp cop"- an officer who moves from jurisdiction to jurisdiction as a result of a dazzling variety of discipline problems.

As a side note, Texas has a "Three strikes and you are out" law regarding police officers who have been fired for cause- or who resigned just short of being fired for cause. Upon their third and final strike, they lose their peace officer license.

This law was enacted back in the 1990s after a tramp cop entered into a brief romantic fling ala "wealthy divorcee meets regular guy". But... the "regular guy" then harassed, stalked, and ultimately killed her when she broke it off.

He avoided an out right murder conviction as he was arguably "investigating a prowler" when she appeared with a weapon and he shot her by "accident". There were, however, some pretty good indications that he had contrived previous prowler incidents at her house.

 

[georgiajean]

I haven't watched it. But based on the descriptions, it's horrifying. And LE were the ones who directed her to the boiling pot in the first place, right?

If they were concerned about the pot/stove, why didn't one of them turn it off?

There was something about her "off" comments that triggered the shooter, I think. She was definitely not fully present, and he reacted vehemently to that. Something that made him feel instantly under direct threat of his life (irrationally). I am curious about his upbringing, if he had something happen with someone who was unhinged with religion or just mentally struggling. Or some situation in the military.

She said "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus" and he went zero to 60. I think he thought that her taking a long time to let them in was her setting up this situation to harm them. All they needed to do was step outside, wait for backup. That person should have never been in a position in law enforcement. Talk about unhinged.

 

[KMouse]

He look like a poster image of a "tramp cop"- an officer who moves from jurisdiction to jurisdiction as a result of a dazzling variety of discipline problems.

As a side note, Texas has a "Three strikes and you are out" law regarding police officers who have been fired for cause- or who resigned just short of being fired for cause. Upon their third and final strike, they lose their peace officer license.

This law was enacted back in the 1990s after a tramp cop entered into a brief romantic fling ala "wealthy divorcee meets regular guy". But... the "regular guy" then harassed, stalked, and ultimately killed her when she broke it off.

He avoided an out right murder conviction as he was arguably "investigating a prowler" when she appeared with a weapon and he shot her by "accident". There were, however, some pretty good indications that he had contrived previous prowler incidents at her house.

Some people avoid being fired by moving around. They move along to other jobs and resign when the heat is on.

 

[sunflowermomma]

And after shooting her, even though he acknowledges that she's still breathing, he makes no effort to get the med kit and even says there's no point in wasting his supplies. He also asks over his radio if she's ever had any 1096 calls which is mental health calls. Then calls her a "crazy b!tch" to the other officers, who are clearly confused. The other officers ask him who the perp is and he says "me". He didn't even call in an officer-involved shooting. It's pure evil, arrogant, and <modsnip - no link>