Former Illinois sheriff’s deputy shot Sonya Massey out of fear for her life, sheriff’s report says

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The former Illinois sheriff’s deputy charged with murder after fatally shooting Sonya Massey in her home says he fired his gun after fearing she would throw scalding liquid at him, according to a sheriff’s office report released Monday.

“As I approached the closet, Sonya stood up, grabbed the pot, raised it above her head and threw the scalding hot substance at me,” former Officer Sean Grayson wrote in the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office report, which is dated July 9. “I was in imminent fear that the scalding hot liquid would reach my face or chest, which would have caused great bodily harm or death. I fired my service weapon in the direction of Sonya.”

Body camera footage from her partner shows Massey and Grayson talking in her Woodside Township home as she moves around the kitchen and he stands a few feet away with a counter between them. Moments before firing his gun, Massey is heard saying twice, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” which Grayson wrote he “interpreted to mean she was going to kill me.”

Grayson yells at her to put down a pot of boiling liquid. He threatens to shoot her, and she ducks down as she says, “I’m sorry.” Massey is seen covering her face with the pot as Grayson points his gun at her. Grayson steps in front of his partner’s body camera at the moment he fires his gun, obscuring Massey’s view at the time.

Grayson wrote in his report that he thought he had activated his body camera at the beginning of the call, but later realized he had not and told his on-site supervisor. He had requested and was allowed to review his coworker’s body camera footage.

Grayson said he gave Massey “clear and strong verbal commands” to drop the container. After Massey ducked behind a cabinet, Grayson said he moved closer to make sure he “didn’t reach for any other weapons.”

“I fired my service weapon in the direction of Sonya,” the report reads. “I saw Sonya fall to the ground behind the counter.”

Grayson pleaded not guilty in Sangamon County Court on July 18 and remains in custody. He was fired from the sheriff’s office after the shooting, and community members, including Massey’s father, have called on Sheriff Jack Campbell to resign, which he has refused to do. Grayson’s killing of Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, has sparked protests from coast to coast and renewed calls for police reform.

The report includes accounts from other deputies

The newly released report includes 30 pages of accounts from other sheriff’s deputies who responded to the shooting.

Officer Jason Eccleston described Grayson as “visibly shaken” and tried to support him at the scene. In his patrol car, Eccleston advised Grayson “not to talk about what happened.”

Eccleston said he took Grayson to Springfield Memorial Hospital. After Grayson was released, he was interviewed by an Illinois State Police investigator at the sheriff’s office.

Sergeant James Hayes wrote in his report that a person, whose name does not appear in the released report, told him Massey had been at a medical facility outside of town. The person described to Hayes how Massey was in his yard “yelling. At one point, Massey threw a brick at one of the windows of his own vehicle.”

Hayes also wrote that he initially thought Massey had shot himself when he arrived home. He also wrote that Grayson told him Massey “came up to him with boiling water and shot him.”

On July 5, the day before he was shot, Massey told a sheriff’s deputy in an interview at St. John’s Hospital that he broke the rear driver’s side window “in an attempt to get into the car to get away from (a neighbor). He was unable to get in through the back, so he ripped out the driver’s side window so he could get into the vehicle,” causing some minor scrapes.

That same day, Massey’s mother detailed in a 911 call that her daughter was having “a mental breakdown,” asked police not to send any “combative” officers and said, “I don’t want her to get hurt.”

This article originally appeared on the State Journal-Register: Sonya Massey case: Ex-legislator thought she was ‘going to kill him’