Deputy suspect in shooting death of Sonya Massey worked for 6 agencies in 4

Deputy accused in shooting death of Sonya Massey worked for 6 agencies in 4 years, documents show

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The fired Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office deputy involved in the shooting death of a woman who called 911 worked for six different law enforcement agencies over the past four years, according to state records obtained by WGN’s Nexstar sister station.

Documents obtained by WCIA show that since August 2020, Sean Grayson worked for the Auburn, Illinois, Police Department for less than a year, the Logan County, Illinois, Sheriff’s Office for a year, and then the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office for a little over a year.

Grayson was arrested twice for Class A misdemeanor driving under the influence, once in 2015 and once in 2016.

“There were all these red flags, and yet he was still appointed a deputy in (Sangamon) County,” said James Wilburn, Sonya Massey’s father.

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Massey, 36, was killed in the early morning hours of July 6 after she called 911 to report a suspected intruder. In bodycam footage of her final moments, Massey ducked and apologized to Grayson seconds before he shot the Black woman three times in her home, with one fatal blow to the head.

An Illinois grand jury indicted Grayson, 30, who is white, last week. He pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a firearm and official misconduct.

The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office admitted to WCIA that it knew about Grayson’s two DUIs when it hired him. The county conducts background checks on all employees before hiring them. But the Sheriff’s Office told WCIA that it was not aware of any complaints of excessive force during Grayson’s previous stints on the force.

WCIA says it has served multiple Freedom of Information Act requests on Grayson’s previous employers seeking information about his departures from previous jobs. According to WCIA, state records show he resigned and started new jobs shortly after leaving previous jobs — sometimes the next day.

County officials told WCIA that to their knowledge, Grayson had never been fired before.

Grayson was released last week and is being held without bail in the Sangamon County Jail. If convicted, he faces 45 years to life in prison for murder, six to 30 years for assault and two to five years for misdemeanor assault.

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