WARNING: This video shows the moments leading up to a fatal police shooting of a woman in her home. It also contains explicit language.
The Illinois State Police released video on Monday of a sheriff’s deputy killing a woman in her home this month, revealing details of a shooting that some likened to high-profile cases in which law enforcement has used excessive force on Black Americans.
Sean Grayson, a white deputy who was dismissed from the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office and charged with three counts of first-degree murder last week, fired three shots at the woman, Sonya Massey, according to the indictment. He also faces a charge of aggravated battery and one of official misconduct.
“Sonya’s death at the hands of a police officer reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement on Monday.
“I commend the actions taken by the Springfield State’s Attorney’s office. While we wait for the case to be prosecuted, let us pray to comfort the grieving,” he said, calling on lawmakers to pass a stalled police reform bill named after George Floyd, who was choked to death by a white officer in 2020.
Grayson, 30, and the second officer were called to Massey’s home in Springfield, about 322 kilometres outside of Chicago, to investigate a report of a suspected “prowler” on July 6 at 12:50 a.m., according to the indictment.
The video, recorded by cameras worn by the officers, shows Massey, 36, in her kitchen removing a pot of boiling water from the stove at their request. As she was doing so, the accompanying officer, who has not been named, backed out of the kitchen into the living room. He said he wanted to put distance between himself and the boiling water.
Massey then said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” after which Grayson aimed his gun at her and threatened to shoot her in the face.
As Grayson instructed her to drop the pot, Massey said, “I’m sorry” and began to duck. Grayson again instructed her to drop the pot. The second officer then drew his firearm.
During this exchange, Massey made no apparent verbal threats nor any movement in the officers’ direction.
WARNING: This video shows the moments leading up to a fatal police shooting of a woman in her home; it also contains explicit language. Police bodycam video released Monday shows the final minutes of Sonya Massey’s life before one of two police officers she was speaking with drew his gun and fatally shot her in her kitchen in Springfield, Ill. Sean Grayson has since been fired and charged with murder.
Grayson made two steps toward the kitchen, yelled at her to drop the pot again and began shooting. He then alerted his superiors that he had shot Massey in the face and turned on his body camera. The entire incident was caught on the second officer’s camera.
The second deputy began rendering aid to Massey two minutes and six seconds after she was shot.
“It is shocking. I mean, every part of the video,” Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney who is representing Massey’s family, said at a briefing.
Crump said Massey may have appeared to have mental health issues, but the officer was not justified in using deadly force. The video shows she was neither aggressive nor threatening to the officers, he said.
“Just imagine if there wasn’t a video, what the narrative would have been,” Crump said.
‘He should have never had a gun’
“This man should have never had a badge. He should have never had a gun,” Massey’s father, James Wilburn, said in a news conference on Monday, noting Grayson’s two previous convictions for DUIs.
“What an embarrassment. What an embarrassment to this country.”
Sangamon County spokesperson Jeff Wilhite said the police department was aware of Grayson’s misdemeanor DUIs in a separate county, the Illinois Times reported.
The Illinois State Police officer who shot and killed a woman in her own home earlier this month had ‘serious blemishes’ on his record and ‘should never have had a badge,’ according to her father. Officer Sean Grayson, who has since been fired and charged with the murder of Sonya Massey, is an ’embarrassment’ to Sangamon County, James Wilburn said at a news conference on Monday.
“All potential Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office employees undergo a criminal background check,” Wilhite told the newspaper. “To our knowledge, Grayson had not been fired from a prior law enforcement job … [and] had no complaints filed against him.”
A former Springfield police chief also told the Illinois Times that DUI convictions don’t automatically disqualify someone from being hired as a police officer in the state.
Grayson’s attorney, Daniel Fultz, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The defendant was jailed until his next court date on Aug. 26.