Bodycam video reveals chaotic scene of deputy fatally shooting Sonya Massey, who called 911 for help
July 23, 2024 2024-07-23 5:55Bodycam video reveals chaotic scene of deputy fatally shooting Sonya Massey, who called 911 for help
Bodycam video reveals chaotic scene of deputy fatally shooting Sonya Massey, who called 911 for help
Introduction: Bodycam video reveals
Springfield, Illinois. Sonya Massey ran to an Illinois sheriff’s deputy and
apologized to him moments before fatally shooting a black woman three times in her home,
body camera video released Monday shows.
An Illinois grand jury indicted former Sangamon
County sheriff’s deputy Shawn Grayson,
30, last week. He pleaded not guilty to charges of first degree murder,
aggravated assault with a firearm and official misconduct.
The video corroborated the prosecution’s 1earlier account of the tense moment
when Grayson yelled at her to put a pot of boiling water down on the counter at Massey’s.
He then threatened to shoot him, Massey got up,
stood there briefly, and Grayson shot him with the gun.
Massey, 36, had previously called 911 to report a prowling suspect, authorities said.
The video shows two officers responding to his home in Springfield,
200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Chicago,
just before 1 a.m. on July 6.
They first walked around the house and found a black SUV in the driveway with broken windows.
It took Macy three minutes to open the door after the officers knocked,
but she immediately said, “Don’t hurt me.”
As they talked at the door, he appeared confused, repeated that he needed help,
mentioned God and told them he didn’t know the car was his.
Inside, she sat on the sofa and appeared angry as officers searched her bag
Grayson then pointed
and asked for identification to fill out a report before leaving.
Grayson then pointed to a pot on the stove.
“We don’t need fire while we’re here,” he said.
Messi quickly got up, went to the stove and placed the pot close to the sink.
He and Grayson apparently laughed over a pot of “steaming water” but then unexpectedly said,
“In the name of Jesus I rebuke you.”
You better stop or I swear to God I’ll shoot you in the face.
Massey said, “Okay, I’m really sorry.”
Grayson’s body camera footage shows him pointing a gun at her.
He bent down and raised his hand.
Mr. Grayson was still in the living room, across from Macy’s,
with the counter separating the living room from the kitchen.
The separation allowed Grayson to be “distanced and relatively protected”
from Massey and the hot water heater, prosecutors said.
After shooting him, Grayson stops his partner from getting a medical kit to save him.
“You can get it, but it’s a shot in the head. There’s nothing you can do, buddy,” he said.
“What else are you going to do?” I’m not throwing boiling water on your face,” he added.
When he realizes that Messi is still breathing, he gives up and says that he will take Kate with him too.
The second deputy said: At least we can stop the bleeding.
“He came at me with boiling water. He said he would rebuke me in the name of Jesus
and he came at me with boiling water,” Grayson told police.
At a news conference Monday afternoon, the family’s attorney,
civil rights attorney Ben Crump, called Grayson’s “revisionist” argument “disingenuous.”
“He needed help. He didn’t need to be shot in the face,” Crump said of Messi.
When Macy asked Grayson why he told Grayson, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,”
Crump said he was being treated for mental illness. He noted that he called out God’s
name right at the beginning of the meeting and asked for a Bible after the representatives entered.
At Massey’s funeral on Friday, Crump said the video he and his family
had previously seen would “shock the conscience of America.”