Sonya Massey was a 36 year old woman living in Springfield, Illinois murdered in her own home by police. The police were responding to a call that Massey had made, where she told dispatchers that she felt an intruder was around her house. The officer who killed Massey was Deputy Sean Grayson.
Grayson and his partner responded to the 911 call, and when they arrived, they knocked on her door. The body cam footage of Grayson’s partner shows what happened. Massey is seen opening the door, saying “Don’t hurt me,” to the officers. The officers said they were responding to her 911 call, reassuring her. They entered the house with her as she looked for her ID. Grayson notices a pot of steaming water on the stove and says to Massey, “We don’t need a fire while we’re here.” Massey got up to remove the pot from the stove, and one of the officers told her to back away from it. Massey responded to Grayson twice saying, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” after which Grayson takes out his gun, and threatens to shoot her. Grayson tpartner shoots her then, three times, and strikes her in the face. Grayson’s partner tries getting his med kit but Grayson replies “That’s a headshot.” The partner says that she’s still breathing, but Grayson relents. By the time the paramedics arrived, Massey was dead.
A grand jury has indicted Grayson on chargers of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and official misconduct. If Grayson is convicted, he will face a prison sentence of 45 years to life for murder, 6 to 30 years for battery, and 2 to 5 years for misconduct. He is being held without bond, and has pleaded not guilty.
Massey was a mother of 2 children – one 17-year old and one 15-year old.
In the aftermath of the murder, Grayson is seen on the bodycam footage justifying his actions, “What else do we do?” He calls her crazy.
According to the family of Sonya Massey, Massey was a descendant of William K. Donnegan, who was a shoemaker and a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Donnegan was lynched during the springfield Race Riot of 1908 by a white mob. Donnegan’s attackers slit his throat and hanged him from a tree outside his home.
The killing of Black people in America has to stop. This is generational, systemic, and unstopping. A study in The Washington Post found that nearly 250 women had been killed by police in the US since 2015, 89 in their home or the home of someone they knew. In Fort Worth in 2019, Atatiana Jeffeson was killed playing video games with her nephew. In 2020, Breonna Taylor was killed by police officers while she was asleep next to her partner.
The Washington Post says, “That’s the problem with America, as it has been for generations. Killings of Black people are not seen for what they are: crimes. They are “race” issues, they are “police training” issues, they are bad apples among otherwise good public servants. Very rarely are police shootings of unarmed people considered murder, the ultimate failure of law and order. Because in this country, the law killed Black people to maintain the racial order.”
We hold the memory of Sonya Massey and her family in our hearts as we plead for systemic racial justice for the countless murders of Black Americans killed in cold blood.
