‘We failed Sonya,’ Illinois sheriff says of fatal police shooting of Sonya Massey

CNN
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Nearly two weeks after one of his former deputies was charged with murder in the death of a Black woman who called 911 for help, an Illinois sheriff publicly admitted Monday that his office failed the slain Springfield resident.

“(Sonya Massey) called for help and we failed,” Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell told a church gathering in Springfield about the July 6 shooting.

“We didn’t do our job. We failed Sonya. We failed Sonya’s family and friends. We failed the community,” Campbell said.

Massey, 36, called 911 to report a possible “intruder” at her home near Springfield, according to a court document filed by prosecutors. After two officers went to the home to investigate, one of them, then-Officer Sean Grayson, shot her to death after a dispute over a pot of hot water, authorities said.

Grayson, 30, was indicted by a grand jury on July 17 on three counts of first-degree murder and one count each of aggravated assault with a firearm and official misconduct. He entered a not guilty plea and was denied pretrial release, according to court records.

A review of an Illinois State Police investigation into the shooting “does not support a finding that … Grayson was justified in his use of deadly force,” county District Attorney John Milhiser said in a July 17 news release.

During Monday night’s meeting, Campbell asked the community for forgiveness and indicated he was willing to force changes within the sheriff’s office.

“I stand before you today, with my arms wide open, and I ask for your forgiveness. I ask for Mrs. Massey and her family’s forgiveness. I make no apologies. What I am doing is our attempt to do better. To be better,” he said.

The sheriff’s office has previously commented on the incident, including on the day the office announced that Grayson had been fired. The office said at the time that Grayson’s actions “do not reflect the values ​​and training of the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office or law enforcement as a whole,” and it was “clear that the deputy sheriff did not act as trained or in accordance with our standards.”

Monday night’s meeting was facilitated by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Division, which is charged with responding to and preventing community tensions and hate crimes based on race and sexual orientation, among other factors.

Last week, the Justice Department said it was reviewing the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting.

“We are here to bring parties together to seek mutual understanding, to solve problems in a way that amplifies local voices and ideas,” Justin Lock, the service’s chief executive, said during the session, which encouraged community members to share their thoughts and feelings about Massey’s death.

Milhiser, the prosecutor, was also one of the speakers at the listening session.

“My number one goal as State’s Attorney is to keep our community safe, to prioritize the public safety of the community,” Milhiser said. “And we do that by prosecuting cases in Sangamon County without fear or favor and holding those who break the law accountable.”

Massey is one of several Black women who have been killed by police in their own homes in recent years, including Breonna Taylor and Atatiana Jefferson. In a press conference last week, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Massey’s family, connected her death to other cases of police brutality against Black people in the U.S.

What bodycam footage shows

Video footage released last week by the Illinois State Police included bodycam footage from each of the two Sangamon County troopers who responded to Massey’s home after midnight on July 6.

In the footage, Grayson and another officer calmly talk to Massey in her home as she goes to the stove to turn off a pot of boiling water. She picks up the pot and the other officer steps back, “away from your hot steaming water,” he says.

“I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” she says in response.

“Huh?” says the deputy sheriff.

“I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” she repeats.

“You better not do that or I swear to God I’m going to shoot you in the face,” Grayson says.

He then pulls out his gun and points it at her. She bends down and says, “I’m sorry,” as she lifts the pot, the video shows.

“Drop that f**king pot!” both officers shout.

Three shots are heard. After a few seconds of silence, an officer says “shots fired” and calls for emergency services.

“Dude, I’m not taking boiling water to my f**king head. And look, it came right up to our feet,” Grayson says.

Minutes after the shooting, Grayson speaks to another law enforcement officer. “She had boiling water and she came at me with boiling water,” he says in the video. “She said she was going to rebuke me in the name of Jesus and she came at me with boiling water.”

Massey’s autopsy report, released last week, found she died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Her family’s attorney emphasized the angle at which the officer shot Massey.

Massey “was shot below her eye, and the bullet (exited) in the back of her neck, below her ear,” Crump told CNN. “What it tells us is he shot her in a downward trajectory.”

When asked for comment Friday, Grayson’s attorney Daniel Fultz told CNN, “I don’t want to comment.”

Grayson did not activate his body camera until after he fatally shot Massey, the charging documents said. The other officer activated his body camera when he first arrived on the scene, the documents said.

According to the other officer’s body camera footage, the incident began when officers walked around Massey’s yard and found a vehicle with broken windows. They then knocked on the door and spoke to her, and she struggled to understand and answer a number of questions about the vehicle and herself.

As they talk in her living room, the officers see the pan on the burning stove and one of them says, “We don’t need a fire while we’re here.” Massey gets up and turns off the stove, at which point shots are fired.

Immediately after the shooting, the video shows Grayson telling his partner Massey that he did not need medical attention.

The other officer says he’s going to get a first aid kit to help, but Grayson replies, “No, she’s done. You can go get it, but this is a headshot.”

Grayson later goes to his vehicle to get his own medical supplies. When he gets back to the house, he asks if there is anything he can do, but is told there is nothing he can do.

“Okay, then I’m not even going to waste my meds,” says Grayson.

Grayson then leaves the house and speaks to a group of police officers outside. “Yeah, I’m good, this f**king b*tch is crazy,” he says, according to the footage.

CNN’s Jennifer Feldman and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.