SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CN) — The Illinois State Police Monday released body cam footage of a Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy shooting an unarmed Black woman in the head while she was in her home.
Law enforcement officers in the central Illinois county, home to the state capital of Springfield, were responding to Springfield resident Sonya Massey’s 911 call on July 6 regarding a possible home intruder when then-Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson shot her at point blank range in the face. Grayson, who is white, threatened to shoot the 36-year-old mother of two over a pot of hot water she was holding. Massey was standing on the opposite side of her kitchen from Grayson at the time.
“I swear to God I’ll fucking shoot you right in your fucking face,” Grayson told her, while gripping his handgun.
Seconds later, he did.
Grayson did not turn on his body camera until after he shot Massey. The footage released Monday comes from another officer who was in the room, and the two can be heard confirming Grayson shot Massey in the head. Less than six seconds before Grayson shot her, Massey ducked and said, “I’m sorry.”
When the second officer offered to go get a medical kit, Grayson can be heard discouraging him.
“She’s done,” he told the other officer. “You can go get it, but that’s a head shot.”
Massey died several hours later at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield. Her family told the Guardian it was the same hospital where her ancestor William Donnegan died. Donnegan was lynched during the 1908 Springfield Race Riot, which catalyzed the creation of the NAACP.
Massey’s father James Wilburn told press Monday that in the wake of his daughter’s killing, he was not informed his daughter was killed by the police.
“Never did they say there was a deputy-involved shooting until my brother read it on the internet,” Wilburn said.
The release of the footage sparked national outrage Monday and prompted responses from both the White House and Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.
“My heart breaks for Sonya’s children, for her family and friends and for all who knew and loved her, and I am enraged that another innocent Black woman had her life taken from her at the hands of a police officer,” Pritzker said in a prepared statement. “I’m grateful to the Springfield State’s Attorney’s Office for bringing the appropriate charges in this case.”
As Pritzker alluded to, a grand jury returned a five-count felony indictment against Grayson last week, including aggravated battery with a firearm, official misconduct and three charges of first degree murder. His arrest warrant was issued last Wednesday, and he remains in state custody.
In his own statement, President Joe Biden urged Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, first introduced by Democrats in February 2021. The act aims to restrict the breadth of applicable qualified immunity defenses for police, reduce militarization of police and condition federal law enforcement funding on agencies adopting policies that allow for the use of deadly force only as a last resort.
“Sonya’s family deserves justice. I am heartbroken for her children and her entire family as they face this unthinkable and senseless loss,” Biden said in his statement.
Robert Peters, a Democratic Illinois state senator and chair of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, said arresting Grayson wasn’t enough. In a statement he issued Monday afternoon, he called for an investigation into how and why he was allowed to become a police officer in the first place.
“The repeated murders of unarmed Black people across the country is sickening and emotionally traumatizing,” Peters said. “Sonya Massey is dead because she called 911 for help. Our communities deserve better.”
Ben Crump, the attorney representing Massey’s family, called for political consequences for her killing on Monday, also urging passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. At Massey’s funeral on Friday, he said the family deserve “full justice.”
“We want the same justice that would happen had that been a white mother of two teenagers who called the police,” Crump said.
The number of people shot and killed by police has steadily risen since 2015. According to a yearslong investigation published in the Washington Post, police have shot and killed nearly 10,000 people since then, including 641 people this year, so far. Nearly 27% of those killed were Black.