Body camera footage shows chaotic scene of fatal shooting of Sonya Massey who called 911

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Sonya Massey ducked and apologized to an Illinois sheriff’s deputy seconds before he shot a Black woman thrice in her home, including once fatally in the top, in accordance with body camera footage released Monday.

An Illinois grand jury last week indicted former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, 30, who is white. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and abuse of authority.

The recording confirmed prosecutors’ earlier account of a tense moment when Grayson shouted from behind the counter for Massey to placed on a pot of hot water. He then threatened to shoot her, Massey ducked, briefly stood up, and Grayson fired a gun at her.

Authorities said Massey, 36, had called 911 earlier to report a suspicious vagrant. The video shows two deputies arriving just before 1 a.m. July 6 at her home in Springfield, 200 miles (322 km) southwest of Chicago. They first walked across the house and located a black SUV with smashed windows within the driveway.

It took Massey three minutes to open the door after the officers knocked, and she or he immediately said, “Don’t hurt me.”

She seemed confused as they talked on the door, and repeated that she needed help, invoking God and saying she didn’t know who the automobile belonged to.

At the home, officers seemed irritated as she sat on the couch and searched her purse, asking for identification in order that they could fill out a report before leaving. Grayson then pointed to a pot on the stove.

“We don’t need to light a fire while we’re here,” he said.

Massey immediately stood up and went to the stove, moving the pot near the sink. She and Grayson appeared to laugh over the pot of “steaming hot water” before she suddenly said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

“You better not (expletive) do that or I swear to God I’m gonna (expletive) shoot you in the (expletive) face.” He then pulled out a 9mm handgun and demanded she put the weed down.

Massey said, “OK, I’m sorry.” Grayson’s body camera footage shows him pointing the gun at her. She ducked and put her hands up.

Grayson was still within the front room, facing Massey and separated by the counter that divided the front room from the kitchen. Prosecutors said the separation allowed Grayson each “distance and relative shelter” from Massey and the pot of hot water.

After Grayson shot her, he dissuaded his partner from reaching for the primary aid kit to save lots of her.

“You can go for it, but it’s a headshot,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do, man.”

He added: “What else can we do? I’m not taking hot (expletive) boiling water on my (expletive) face.”

Noticing that Massey was still respiratory, he relented and said he would grab his kit, too. The second deputy said, “We can at least try to stop the bleeding.”

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Grayson told responding police, “She had boiling water and came to me with boiling water. She said she was going to rebuke me in the name of Jesus and came to me with boiling water.”

During a Monday afternoon news conference, the family’s attorney, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, called Grayson’s “revisionist” justification “disingenuous.”

“She needed a helping hand. She didn’t need a bullet in the face,” Crump said of Massey.

Asked why Massey told Grayson, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” Crump said she had been receiving treatment for mental health issues. He noted that she had been calling on God’s name from the start of the encounter and asked for a Bible when officers entered.

During Massey’s funeral on Friday, Crump said the footage he and his family had already watched would “shock the conscience of America.”

Massey’s father, James Wilburn, demanded that the district court conduct the investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators completely openly and transparently with the general public.

“The only time I’ll see my baby is when I leave this world,” Wilburn said. “And I don’t want anyone else in the United States to join that league.”

Grayson, who was released last week, stays within the Sangamon County Jail without bail. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 45 years to life in prison for murder, 6 to 30 years for assault and a pair of to five years for the misdemeanor.

His attorney, Daniel Fultz, declined to comment Monday.

President Joe Biden said in an announcement that he and first lady Jill Biden are praying for Massey’s family “as they face this unimaginable and senseless loss.”

“When we call for help, all of us as Americans — no matter who we are or where we live — should be able to do so without fear for our lives,” Biden said. “Sonya’s death at the hands of a responding officer reminds us that too often, black Americans fear for their safety in ways that many of us do not.”

Massey’s death is the most recent case of black people being killed by police in their very own homes lately.

In May, a Hispanic Florida sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Roger Fortson when the Air Force private answered the door of his Fort Walton Beach home with a gun pointed down. The deputy, Eddie Duran, was fired.

In 2019, a white Fort Worth, Texas, police officer fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson through the back window of her home after responding to a non-emergency call that Jefferson’s front door was open. Aaron Dean, a former police officer, was convicted of murder and sentenced to just about 12 years in prison.

In 2018, a white Dallas police officer fatally shot Botham Jean, who was unarmed after mistaking his apartment for his own. Amber Guyger, a former police officer, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Crump has represented families in each case as part of his efforts to force accountability for police killings of black people. Crump also represented relatives of Earl Moore, a Springfield man who died after being strapped facedown to a gurney in December 2022. Two paramedics in that case face murder charges.