SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Sonya Massey ducked and apologized to an Illinois sheriff’s deputy only seconds before he shot her three times, with one fatal blow to the head in her own home, as seen in body camera video released Monday.
The video’s release came days after an Illinois grand jury indicted former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson. Officials said Massey’s family viewed the footage on Wednesday.
The video confirmed prosecutors’ earlier account of the tense moment when Grayson yelled from across a counter at 36-year-old Massey to set down a pot from the stove just seconds after she started pouring the water into the sink and the two chuckled over the “hot steaming water.”
He then threatened to shoot her, Massey ducked then briefly rose and Grayson fired his pistol at her three times.
Authorities said Massey called 911 earlier to report a suspected prowler. The video said the two deputies responded just before 1 a.m. on July 6, first walking around the house and finding a black SUV with broken windows in the driveway.
It took Massey three minutes to open the door after the deputies knock, and she immediately said “Don’t hurt me.”
She seemed confused as they spoke at her front door, and repeated that she needed help, referenced God and told them she didn’t know who owned the car.
The video doesn’t show what led Massey and Grayson to walk inside her house, followed by the other unidentified deputy. The deputies seemed exasperated as she sat on her couch and went through her purse as they asked for identification. Then Grayson pointed out a pot sitting on a visible flame on the stove.
“We don’t need a fire while we’re here,” he said.
Massey immediately got up and went to the stove, moving the pot over near a sink. She and Grayson seemed to share a laugh before she said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
“You better (expletive) not or I swear to God I’ll (expletive) shoot you in your (expletive) face.” He then pulled his 9mm pistol and said “Drop the (expletive) pot.”
Massey said, “OK, I’m sorry.” In Grayson’s bodycam footage, he pointed his weapon at her. She ducked and raised her hands while still holding two oven mitts.
Grayson was still in the living room, facing Massey and separated by a counter dividing the living room and kitchen. Prosecutors have said the separation allowed Grayson both “distance and relative cover” from Massey.
After Grayson shot her, the other deputy said “I’m gonna go get my kit.”
Grayson said, “No, it’s a headshot. She done. You can go get it, but that’s a headshot … there’s nothing you can do, man.”
He added: “What else do we do? I’m not taking hot (expletive) boiling water to the (expletive) 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 me 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 comment on 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 Attorney General 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 Joe 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.
Massey’s death is the latest example of Black people killed in recent years by police in their homes.
In May, a Hispanic Florida sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Roger Fortson, when the Air Force senior airman opened the door of his home in Fort Walton Beach armed with a handgun pointed down. The deputy, Eddie Duran, was fired.
In 2018, a white Dallas police officer fatally shot Botham Jean, who was unarmed, after mistaking his apartment for her own. Amber Guyger, the former officer, was convicted of murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In 2019, a white Fort Worth, Texas, officer fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson through a rear window of her home after responding to a nonemergency call reporting that Jefferson’s front door was open. Aaron Dean, the former officer, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
Crump has represented families in each case as part of his effort to force accountability for the killings of Black people at the hands of police.
Massey’s death prompted subsequent protests demanding justice in Springfield, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. Speaking at her funeral Friday, 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 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.
AP writer Sophia Tareen contributed from Chicago.
