Sonya Massey’s first words to police were “please don’t hurt me,” despite being the one to have called because she thought there was a prowler outside her home. Videos from the initial encounter show her trying to persuade the officers to leave as her soon-to-be killer was being condescending and aggressive. Massey, like Breonna Taylor and Atatiana Jefferson, is one of several Black women who have been killed by police in their own homes in recent years, with this incident occurring in a county near Springfield, Illinois.
The officer at the center of this tragedy is Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson. He has quite the history, as he has worked at no less than six police departments in just the past four years, has more than one DUI, and was discharged from the army for “serious misconduct.” Why Sheriff Jack Campbell ever hired him to begin with is something he still hasn’t answered.
The footage below from the unfortunate event is among the worst I’ve ever seen.
The incident was so bad that Grayson was actually fired, arrested and charged with first-degree murder—a rare outcome in these kinds of situations. Initially, the Sheriff’s office misled Sonya’s father, suggesting her death might have been caused by an intruder.
"We were under the impression that she was killed by the intruder, or some other person from the street, and they just went in there and found her dead body," Wilburn said, adding that rumors began to circulate that Massey's killing was self-inflicted.
It was only after body camera footage was released that the truth came to light.
For those unable to view the footage, a brief timeline: Massey called 911 to report a possible intruder. Grayson demands an ID and enters the home with another deputy. While the other deputy searches her house, Grayson began yelling loudly at Massey as she went to take care of a pot of boiling water on the stove. Grayson demanded she put down the pot of water despite giving her permission to remove it. Although Grayson was in a separate room, he brandished his gun and threatened to shoot Massey in the face. Documents reveal that Massey raised her hands, cowered on the floor, and said “I’m sorry.” Grayson then discharged his weapon three times, hitting Massey in the face.
As Sonya Massey lay bleeding to death on the floor, he instructed his partner not to bother trying to save her. “She’s done.” His partner doesn’t bother getting the medical kit. Worse still is that when other deputies arrived, he lies and said he felt threatened by her. He also refers to the dead woman as “crazy” and a “f***ing bitch.” To be clear, Grayson turned his body camera off during this encounter. The only reason we know what happened is that his partner kept his on.
Kamala Harris and Joe Biden both released strong statements condemning the killing of Sonya Massey. Donald Trump, however, took a different approach. Trump was recently endorsed by the largest coalition of police unions, which fight tooth and nail against any kind of reform. Right after the footage was released, Trump told rallygoers in Waukesha, Wisconsin that police need more immunity from prosecution.
“We’re going to give our police their power back, and we are going to give them immunity from prosecution.”
Trump has doubled-down on blanket immunity since that rally. When he was called out on it during his disastrous interview with the National Association of Black Journalists, Trump first claimed to not be familiar with the Massey case, then said it didn’t look good, but then pivoted to saying violence in Chicago is why cops need more immunity.
It’s too bad for Grayson that Trump lost his re-election bid, because if Trump was successful in getting blanket immunity from prosecution, he would likely have evaded justice.
In 2021, Democrats passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in the House, but it stalled in the Senate. Conservative backlash grew as proposals to stem systemic racism were deemed "woke" or anti-police. By the time the GOP recaptured the House in 2023, police reform legislation was all but dead. Last May, the late Texas Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee tried to revive the Justice in Policing Act on what would have been the fourth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder.
Despite current Congressional challenges, Democrats should re-introduce this legislation to
highlight police reform as a top issue and force Republicans to defend their inaction. The bill would do many things to
hold police accountable and make it easier to investigate police misconduct. A key measure in the bill is the creation of a National Police Misconduct Registry, which is a tool sorely needed to check police officers' backgrounds on a national level. Such a registry would have flagged Deputy Sean Grayson’s troubling past. Unfortunately, current systems make it difficult to access an officer's past records in other jurisdictions.
The bill would also make it easier to prosecute offending officers by amending the federal criminal statute to prosecute police misconduct from “willfulness” to a “recklessness” standard. Furthermore, it would enable individuals to recover damages in civil court when law enforcement officers violate their constitutional rights. Such a penalty might give reckless cops a lot more pause when dealing with people they are supposed to serve.
The legislation also requires that the Department of Justice to set uniform accreditation standards for training on racial profiling, implicit bias, and the duty to intervene when another officer uses excessive force. During the incident, Grayson’s partner did not stop the escalating misconduct that led to Massey’s death. The duty to intervene obligation might have made a difference.
The bill would give the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division subpoena power and would a grant program for state attorneys general to develop authority to conduct independent investigations into problematic police departments.
Finally, the bill seeks to increase the use of dash cams and body cameras. Federal police officers would have them required, and state and local officers would have them fully funded. Although Grayson turned off his body camera during the shooting, his partner’s body camera captured the event. Without this footage, Grayson might have evaded accountability. As a former cop, I can tell you that good cops like body cam footage. Bad cops don’t.
Even if police reform can’t pass at a national level with unified GOP opposition, Democratic-led states should seize this moment to implement their own reforms. For instance, Illinois could create a state database for police misconduct. At the very least, they could ban the hiring of officers with more than one DUI. That alone would have kept Grayson off the force.
Although national legislation would prevent red states from curbing accountability stemming from police misconduct, state legislation can at least set a blueprint for when we can return responsible people to Congress.
I realize that I’ve made this argument before. Early in 2023, after yet another police brutality incident, I wrote about
my own experiences as cop. I wrote why I hate police unions and made suggestions for reform. Seeing Sonya Massey’s kids crying was another punch in the gut. There’s just so much that can be done that we aren’t doing, but at this point, I would settle for body cams and better training if nothing else. I just want to see some movement on this issue, as do millions of others. It seems that we were waiting for just the right incident to be caught on camera that will be just horrific enough to finally force action. If Sonya Massey’s case doesn’t do it, then I don’t know what the hell will.
