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After fatally shooting an unarmed Black woman who called 911 to report what she thought was a prowler outside her Illinois home, police claimed her death was in fact self-inflicted, according to the victim’s family and dispatch audio from the incident.
Police at first told hospital staff that Sonya Massey, 36, had died by suicide, Jimmie Crawford Jr., the father of Massey’s daughter, said Tuesday at a press conference organized by civil rights attorney Ben Crump. At the same time, officers told Crawford that a neighbor had been responsible for Massey’s killing, he said. Massey’s son said police told him that his mother “had been shot in the eye and it came out her neck.”
“They didn’t tell me who,” Malachi Hill Massey, 17, said on Tuesday. “They were just saying [it was] ‘somebody.’”
Massey, who Crump said had mental health issues, was shot dead nearly three weeks ago inside her Springfield home by Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson, who is white. He has since been fired and was indicted July 17 on charges of official misconduct, aggravated battery with a firearm, and first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty. Grayson, who has been arrested twice for DUI, worked for six different police agencies in the past four years, raising questions about his fitness for the job.
In bodycam footage captured by Grayson’s partner, which was released on Monday by the Illinois State Police, Grayson can be heard asking dispatch, post-shooting, if Massey has “any call history for being 10-96,” the department’s code for a mentally ill subject. In contemporaneous radio traffic reviewed by The Independent, a police dispatcher can be heard saying, “Just to confirm: self-inflicted?” Following a few seconds of confused back-and-forth, an unidentified voice from the scene replies, “Self-inflicted.”
Grayson’s body camera was not activated until after the deadly shooting.
In the available video, the two deputies can be seen arriving at Massey’s home in the early-morning hours of July 6 in response to her 12:49 a.m. call for service. She told the dispatcher that she was hearing strange noises outside, and that it sounded like someone was banging on the side of her house.
When Grayson and his partner arrive, they spend a few minutes searching the area, then enter the house at around 1:15 a.m. The two talk for a while with Massey, who offers to show them ID and her “paperwork.” A short time later, Grayson notices a pot of water on the stove in the adjacent kitchen, and instructs Massey to turn off the flame.
“We don’t need a fire while we’re here,” he says.
When Massey picks up the pot, Grayson tells her to put it down. She then says, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” to which Grayson responds by removing his gun from its holster.
“You better f*****g not!” Grayson shouts at Massey. “I swear to God, I’ll f*****g shoot you right in your f*****g face! Drop the fucking pot! Drop the fucking pot! Drop it!”
Massey then apologizes twice and ducks down slightly; Grayson then yells, “Drop the f*****g pot!” before firing three rounds at Massey, striking her once below the eye.
“We got a head-shot wounded female! Head-shot wounded female! 10-78! F***!” he shouts into his police radio.
Grayson’s partner, who has not been identified publicly, then tells Grayson,“I’m gonna go get my kit.”
“Eh, she’s done,” Grayson replies. “You can go get it, but that’s a headshot… there’s nothing we can do, man.”
“You good?” Grayson asks.
“Yeah, I’m good,” the partner says. “You?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” Grayson responds. “... You know, what else could we do? I’m not taking hot, boiling water to the f*****g face.”
A few minutes later, with Massey still “gasping for air,” as Grayson’s partner can be heard saying, more officers and emergency medical personnel arrive on the scene.
“Where’s the gun?” one says.
“No, no—she came at me with boiling water,” Greyson tells him.
On Monday, Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell issued a statement calling Greyson’s decision to shoot “unjustifiable and reckless.”
“Grayson had other options available that he should have used,” Campbell’s statement said. “His actions were inexcusable and do not reflect the values or training of our office. He will now face judgment by the criminal justice system and will never again work in law enforcement. Ms. Massey needlessly lost her life, and her family deserves answers. I trust the legal process will provide them.”
President Biden also released an official statement on Monday, saying that all Americans should be able to call police for help “without fearing for our lives.”
“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,” Biden said. “Sonya’s family deserves justice. I am heartbroken for her children and her entire family as they face this unthinkable and senseless loss.”
The US Department of Justice has now opened its own investigation into the shooting.
