The 36-year-old woman died July 6 after an encounter with deputies from the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office at her home in Springfield, Illinois.
In a harrowing and poignant moment captured on body camera footage unveiled Monday, Sonya Massey, a Black woman, ducked and issued an apology to an Illinois sheriff’s deputy mere seconds before he fatally shot her thrice, with one lethal shot to her head.
An Illinois grand jury has since indicted Sean Grayson, a 30-year-old former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy, who is white. Grayson has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and official misconduct.
The released video substantiated prosecutors’ accounts of the fraught incident where Grayson, from across a counter, commanded Massey to put down a pot of hot water, subsequently threatening to shoot her. Massey ducked, briefly stood, and Grayson discharged his firearm at her.
Authorities disclosed that Massey, aged 36, had dialed 911 earlier to report a suspected prowler. The footage reveals the two deputies arriving shortly before 1 a.m. on July 6 at her Springfield residence, located 200 miles southwest of Chicago. They initially patrolled around the property and discovered a black SUV with shattered windows in the driveway.
After the deputies knocked, Massey took three minutes to open the door, immediately pleading, “Don’t hurt me.”
She appeared disoriented while conversing at the door, reiterating her need for assistance, invoking God, and expressing uncertainty about the car’s ownership.
Inside, the deputies seemed increasingly exasperated as Massey sat on her couch, rummaging through her purse as they requested identification to complete a report. Grayson then remarked about a pot sitting on a lit stove.
“We don’t need a fire while we’re here,” he stated.
Massey promptly moved the pot near the sink, sharing a moment of levity with Grayson over her pot of “steaming hot water” before unexpectedly proclaiming, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
“You better not or I swear to God I’ll shoot you in your face,” Grayson responded, drawing his 9mm pistol and demanding she drop the pot.
Massey said, “OK, I’m sorry.” In the body camera footage, Grayson aimed his weapon at her. She ducked and raised her hands.
Grayson, stationed in the living room, faced Massey, separated by a counter between the living room and kitchen. Prosecutors have noted that this separation afforded Grayson both “distance and relative cover” from Massey and the hot water.
After Grayson shot her, he discouraged his partner from retrieving a medical kit to save her.
“You can go get it, but that’s a headshot,” he remarked. “There’s nothing you can do, man.”
He added: “What else do we do? I’m not taking hot boiling water to the face.”
Upon observing that Massey was still breathing, he relented and offered to fetch his kit as well. The other deputy said, “We can at least try to stop the bleeding.”
Grayson informed responding officers, “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.”
During a Monday news conference, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Massey’s family, denounced Grayson’s “revisionist” account as “disingenuous.”
“She needed a helping hand. She did not need a bullet to her face,” Crump stated.
When questioned about Massey’s invocation of “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” Crump explained that she had undergone treatment for mental health issues, often invoking God’s name from the outset and requesting her Bible after the deputies entered her home.
At Massey’s funeral on Friday, Crump mentioned that the video, which he and the family had already seen, would “shock the conscience of America.”
Massey’s father, James Wilburn, demanded full transparency from the county court system regarding the investigation and prosecution.
“The only time I will see my baby again is when I leave this world,” Wilburn said. “And I don’t ever want anybody else in the United States to join this league.”
Grayson, dismissed from his position last week, is held in the Sangamon County Jail without bond. If convicted, he faces 45 years to life in prison for murder, 6 to 30 years for battery, and 2 to 5 years for misconduct.
His attorney, Daniel Fultz, declined to comment on Monday.
President Joe Biden, in a statement, expressed that he and First Lady Jill Biden were praying for Massey’s family “as they face this unthinkable and senseless loss.”
“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,” Biden said. “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.”
Massey’s death epitomizes the tragic instances of Black individuals killed by police in their own homes in recent years.
In May, a Hispanic Florida sheriff’s deputy fatally shot Roger Fortson, an Air Force senior airman, when he answered his door with a handgun pointed down in Fort Walton Beach. The deputy, Eddie Duran, was dismissed from his role.
In 2019, a white Fort Worth, Texas, officer shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson through a rear window of her home following a nonemergency call about her front door being open. Former officer Aaron Dean was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
In 2018, Botham Jean, unarmed, was fatally shot by a white Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger, who mistakenly entered his apartment, believing it to be her own. Guyger was convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Crump has represented the families in each case, advocating for accountability in the deaths of Black individuals at the hands of police. He also represents relatives of Earl Moore, a Springfield man who died after being strapped face down on a stretcher in December 2022. Two emergency medical professionals face murder charges in that case.
