Bodycam video reveals chaotic scene of deputy fatally shooting woman who called 911 for help

By John O’ConnorO’Connor writes for the Associated Press.

July 22, 2024 3:17 PM PT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Body camera video released Monday by a prosecutor reveals a chaotic scene in which Sonya Massey, a Black woman who called 911 for help, is shot in the face in her home by a white sheriff’s deputy.

The video from body cameras shows a tense moment in which former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson yelled at 36-year-old Sonya Massey to set down a pot from the stove just seconds after she started pouring the water into the sink and the two giggled over her “hot steaming water.” He then threatens to shoot her, Massey ducks then briefly rises and Grayson fires his pistol at her three times.

The released video from July 6 contains material from the body cameras of the two deputies who responded to the emergency call.

Authorities said Massey called 911 in the early morning hours to report a suspected prowler. Grayson entered the house with another deputy.

In the video, Grayson and another deputy check around Massey’s house for an intruder and then knock on her door. Lights are off in the house and Massey takes a long time to answer. She appears confused and when deputies go inside Massey has difficulty giving her name for a report as deputies prepare to leave.

Grayson tells her to give him her ID. Then he points to the kitchen for the other deputy to check on the stove. “We don’t need a fire while we’re here.”

Massey goes to the kitchen and after she and Grayson share a laugh, she says, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” and asks him a question.

“You better ... not or I swear to God I’ll ... shoot you in your ... face.” He then pulls his 9mm pistol and says “Drop the (expletive) pot.”

Massey says, “OK, I’m sorry.” In Grayson’s bodycam footage, he pulls the gun and when she ducks, she raises her hands and it looks like she has the red pan in her hands. But Grayson is still in the living room, facing Massey, behind a counter dividing the living room and kitchen, 10 or 15 feet away.

The other deputy, who is not named, said “I’m gonna go get my kit.”

Grayson said, “No, it’s a head shot. She done. You can go get it, but that’s a head shot ... there’s nothing you can do, man.”

He added: “What else do we do? I’m not taking hot ... boiling water to the ... face”

Noting that Massey was still breathing despite losing a lot of blood, he relented and said he would get his kit too. The other deputy responded, “We can at least try to stop the bleeding.”

Speaking to responding police, Grayson told them “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 with boiling water.”

Grayson, who was fired last week, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. He is being held in the Sangamon County Jail without bond.

If convicted, he faces prison sentences of 45 years to life for murder, 6 to 30 years for battery and 2 to 5 years for misconduct. His lawyer, Daniel Fultz, declined to comment Monday.

“The body camera footage is horrific, and I offer my deepest sympathy to Sonya Massey’s family as they relive a moment no family should experience,” Illinois Atty. Gen. Kwame Raoul said in a statement. “As the community reacts to the release of the footage, I urge calm as this matter works its way through the criminal justice system.”

In a statement, President Biden said 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.”

Ben Crump, the noted civil rights attorney who is representing Massey’s family, told the crowd at her funeral in Springfield on Friday that the video would reveal a crime as startling as the 1955 lynching of Chicago teenager Emmitt Till in Mississippi, the Chicago police shooting of Laquan McDonald and the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd.

“It is going to shock the conscience of America. It is that senseless, that unnecessary, that unjustifiable, that unconstitutional,” Crump said. “This sheriff’s deputy was twice as large as Sonya. Why would you have to use a gun to shoot her in the head?”

Massey’s death prompted subsequent protests demanding justice in the case. Echoing that call at her funeral, Massey’s father, James Wilburn, said he’s encouraged by the speed with which the Illinois State Police, which investigated the incident.

“In 10 days, they convened a grand jury. They completed their investigation. They arrested, they got him fired,” Wilburn said. “That’s unheard of.”

Crump, who plans a news conference with family members following the video release, is on his second sojourn in Springfield, about 200 miles southwest of Chicago. He has also represented relatives of Earl Moore, a Springfield man who died after he was strapped face-down on a stretcher in December 2022. Two emergency medical professionals face murder charges in that case.

O’Connor writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Sophia Tareen contributed from Chicago.