On July 6, Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman in Springfield, Ill., called 911 for help with a suspected prowler. Instead of receiving that help, Massey would end up dead at the hands of a sheriff’s deputy who, by all accounts, was allegedly unfit to be serving on the police force.
Former Deputy Sean Grayson’s red-flag-riddled record somehow slipped through the cracks, authorities are saying now, and unfortunately, he was one of the two deputies who showed up at Massey’s home on that tragic night.
But while Massey’s family continues to seek justice and answers, advocates say that if certain political figures have their way, there will be more cases just like hers. They point to a bleak future where right-wing politicians continue to block the the legislation needed to hold law enforcement accountable for its crimes and grant immunity to murdering cops.
The murder of Sonya Massey
As seen in the released footage recorded by Grayson’s partner’s bodycam, when the two deputies arrived and rang the doorbell to Massey’s home, the young woman was hesitant at first to open the door. After some delay, during which Grayson and his partner identified themselves as law enforcement, Massey answered the door and said, “Please don’t hurt me.” When Grayson and his partner assured her that they would not, she let them in.
Inside Massey’s home, as she was trying to find her identification, Grayson directed her to remove a boiling pot of water from the stove. The video shows Massey walking to the stove and moving the pot away from the fire. Words and slight laughter seem to be exchanged between Massey and Grayson regarding the hot water, but a split second later, after Massey said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” things took a tragic turn.
In the video, Grayson seems to take Massey’s words as a threat. He draws his gun and yells, “You better (expletive) not, or I swear to God I’ll (expletive) shoot you in your (expletive) face!” In that moment, his partner follows suit and also draws his gun. In the midst of Massey apologizing and following Grayson’s orders to put the pot down, gunfire rings out. We hear the deputies call out on their radio that shots have been fired.
Grayson fired his gun three times. Massey’s official autopsy report from the Sangamon County Coroner’s office would later reveal that Massey was shot just beneath her left eye, and the bullet exited the back of her upper neck. The pathway of the bullet seems to give credence to Massey’s family’s claim that she was crouched down when Grayson proceeded to shoot her.
As civil rights attorney and representative for Massey’s family Ben Crump told the press in a recent news conference, “What it tells us is that he [Grayson] shot her in a downward trajectory.”
As Massey lay dying, Grayson discouraged his partner from rendering aid even though, as his partner noted, Massey was still gasping for air. Massey would not survive her wounds, and, according to her family, it would be hours before they would learn that her death was due to an officer-involved shooting.
In the weeks that have followed, Grayson has been fired from his job and indicted on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and official misconduct. The former deputy pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance, but as Massey’s family seeks justice, the deputy’s record of previous incidents of misconduct has come to light.
It has placed the systemic problems involving law enforcement when it comes to personnel, training, communication, and transparency center stage.
A preventable death
The road to former deputy Grayson working on the force in Sangamon County—and ultimately shooting Massey—is one riddled with allegations of dangerous misconduct, law-breaking, questionable behavior, and a serious lack of vetting.
Documents obtained from the Kincaid Police Department, where Grayson worked previously, note that he was discharged from the U.S. Army in 2016, after enlisting in 2014, from the Fort Riley Army installation in Kansas for “Misconduct (Serious Offense).” In addition to this general discharge, Grayson was convicted of two misdemeanor DUI convictions in Macoupin County in 2015 and 2016.
When asked in an interview how Grayson was able to get a job at the sheriff’s department with two previous DUI convictions on his record, Jeff Wilhite, the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, answered that Grayson’s application had been reviewed by a “Merit Commission for review and certification.”
Wilhite stated that the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board (ILETSB) reviewed the information in his record—which included the DUI convictions—and certified Grayson for hire. Wilhite also noted that Grayson passed “a drug test, criminal background check, and psychological evaluation and graduated from a 16-week training academy before serving as a Sangamon County Deputy.”
However, personnel records obtained by various press outlets through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Wilhite’s clear-cut explanation omitted important details of Grayson’s history on the force and numerous incidents that exposed his questionable job performance.
State records show that Grayson worked at six different law enforcement agencies in the last four years. As the Associated Press reported, he worked for a year as a deputy sheriff in Logan County before being hired in Sangamon County. While at Logan County, Grayson was told he needed more training—including high-stress decision-making classes—in November 2022 after he failed to follow an order to halt a high-speed pursuit, where he reached speeds of 110 mph before colliding with a deer.
Capitol News Illinois obtained a recording of the conversation between Grayson and his superiors in Logan County after the incident in 2022. Nathan Miller, a chief deputy with the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, and Michael Block, a lieutenant, explain to Grayson that a report he submitted would not be approved because it had inaccurate information and could be perceived as “misconduct.” The report says that, according to further details found in Grayson’s personnel file, he violated department policy after ignoring a supervisor’s order to stop the chase.
In that same recording, supervisor Miller can be heard saying to Grayson, “Seven months on. How are you still employed by us?” To which Grayson simply replies, “I don’t know.”
Before working in Logan County, he was on the force in Auburn township, where employee records show that his written incident reports were lacking and that he was “not great with evidence.” He was also the subject of two complaints regarding his conduct while there, although those complaints would be marked as unfounded on his personnel file.
Despite these numerous issues, Grayson was easily hired at his last job.
During Massey’s funeral services on July 19, her father, James Wilburn, stated, “[There] were all these red flags, and yet they still made him a deputy in this county.”
Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell issued a statement on Massey’s death, saying that Massey “lost her life due to an unjustifiable and reckless decision by former deputy Sean Grayson. Grayson had other options available that he should have used. His actions were inexcusable and do not reflect the values or training of our office.”
But residents and Massey’s family say apologies are not enough. Wilburn and others are calling for Campbell to resign, as they also make the connection to the lack of legislation to protect people from another Grayson and other forms of police brutality.
George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and Project 2025
During a July 22 news conference addressing the killing, Teresa Haley, founder of the non-profit Visions 1908 and former president of the Springfield NAACP, stated, “Enough is enough. A young Black woman lost her life carelessly at the hands of a deputy sheriff.”
Evoking the names of other Black women killed at the hands of police, such as Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, and Pam Turner, lawyer Ben Crump stated that there was no accountability in any of those cases. “These Black women died,” he said, “and America has blood on their hands.”
Crump went on to say that the video of Massey’s murder would be impactful not only on society but also on the 2024 elections, as the Black community did not want another Laquan McDonald situation.
McDonald was a 17-year-old Black youth who was shot and killed in Chicago by officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014. Van Dyke was a police officer for 14 years, and in that time, an estimated 20 citizen complaints were filed against him, some including accusations of excessive force. None resulted in disciplinary action. Clearly, it was another example of an officer with a checkered past being allowed to continue to serve who ultimately killed a Black person.
Crump said that often the only thing that happens to the “killer cop” in such cases is a “slap on the wrist,” referring to how Van Dyke only served three years of his seven-year sentence for McDonald’s murder.
Wilburn spoke at the conference and noted that the country needs to pass the George Floyd Policing Act to honor his daughter. The Act was first introduced four years ago after George Floyd was killed by excessive police force. His death, along with Breonna Taylor’s, which happened mere months prior, sparked national protests and demands for police reform—leading to the Black Lives Matter national uprising in the summer of 2020.
The legislation would address a number of issues regarding police misconduct and procedures. Although the bill seeks to remedy many systemic problems—such as establishing a national database registry of police misconduct to prevent officers from evading consequences for their actions by moving to another jurisdiction—it remains in political limbo because Congress has failed to make it law.
The bill passed in the Democratic-controlled House in 2020 and 2021—almost totally along party lines. Yet, it failed to go anywhere in the Senate due to Republicans refusing to do away with qualified immunity (which prevents government officials, including police, from being sued by accusers).
Recently, the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee reintroduced the bill to Congress months before her recent passing. In May of this year, Lee said:
“This bill will finally hold law enforcement accountable for misconduct and separate them from the majority of those endowed with the ethic of just and equitable public safety. It will also improve training, practices, and transparency to rebuild the broken trust of the communities they serve. While no single policy prescription will erase decades of systemic racism and excessive policing, the time has come for the federal government to create structural change with meaningful reforms.”
Massey’s death has sparked renewed calls for the bill to become reality, along with the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. But the outcome of the 2024 elections could make both these pieces of legislation dead on arrival. That’s because former president and current GOP nominee Donald Trump has said at a recent campaign rally in Minnesota—a little over a week after Massey’s murder—that if elected, he will grant police “federal immunity” so they can “do their jobs.”
In May of this year in Wisconsin, he proclaimed, “We’re going to give our police their power back. And we are going to give them immunity from prosecution.” This flies in the face of actual statistics that show that police officers are rarely criminally prosecuted for acts of misconduct.
This also connects to the ongoing discussion around the massive 1,000-page document Project 2025, which lays out a detailed far-right policy blueprint for the next Republican president. One of the ultra-conservative actions it envisions is the abolition of the Department of Justice, which researchers have said would have a detrimental effect on the training and accountability of federal, state, and local law enforcement.
It is clear that under a second Trump administration, Grayson would not even currently be in jail, and he definitely would be facing the possibility of decades behind bars if convicted for Massey’s murder. While this systemic issue has existed for decades, by the evidence of Trump’s own words, we would see a rolling back of any progress made thus far if he returns to the White House, such as President Joe Biden’s 2022 executive order to advance effective, accountable policing and criminal justice practices.
Sonya Massey’s death is an unfortunate reminder that crucial laws for systemic improvement are on the line this November in order to help prevent more tragedies.
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