Sonya Massey was shot in her home after police asked her to put down a pot of boiling water. Today we will discuss about Sonya Massey release video: Shooting Black woman,What happened.
Sonya Massey release video: Shooting Black woman,What happened
Body camera video released Monday shows Sonya Massey apologizing to an Illinois sheriff’s deputy seconds before she shoots the Black woman three times in her home, one fatally striking the head.
An Illinois grand jury last week indicted former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Shawn Grayson, 30, who is white. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a firearm and official misconduct.
Video confirmed prosecutors’ earlier description of the tense moment when Grayson yelled at Macy’s to put down a pot of hot water from across a counter. Then he threatened to shoot her, Macy bowed, got up briefly, and Grayson pointed his pistol at her.
Authorities said Massey, 36, had previously called 911 to report a suspected stalker. The two deputies responded to her home in Springfield, 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, just before 1 a.m. on July 6, video shows. They first went around the house and saw a black SUV with broken windows on the way.
It took Macy three minutes to open the door after deputies knocked and he immediately said, “Don’t hurt me.”
She seemed confused as they talked at the door, and she repeated that she needed help, cited God and told them she didn’t know whose car it was.
Inside the house, while she was sitting on her couch and asking about her identification to complete a report before leaving, the deputies seemed frustrated and searched her purse. Then Grayson pointed to a pot sitting on the fire on the stove.
“As long as we’re here, we don’t need a fire,” he said.
Macy immediately got up and moved the pot from the sink to the stove. It seemed like she and Grayson were laughing over their pan of “hot water” before she unexpectedly said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
“You better not (expletive) do that or I swear to God I’ll (expletive) shoot you in the face.”
Shooting Black woman
Grayson was still in the living room, facing Macy’s and separated by a counter dividing the living room and kitchen. Prosecutors have said that the separation allowed Grayson both “distance and relative cover” from Massey and the hot water pot.
After Grayson shoots him, Grayson discourages his partner from taking the medical kit to save him.
He said, “You can get it, but it’s a hoax.” “You can’t do anything, man.”
He added: “What else do we do? I’m not taking hot (expletive) boiling water to the (expletive) face.”
Seeing that Macy was still breathing, he took a softer approach and said he would get his kit too. “We can at least try to stop the bleeding,” said another deputy.
“She had boiling water and she came at me with boiling water,” Grayson told police. She said she was going to scold 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.”
“He needed help. “He didn’t need a bullet in his face,” Crump said of Massey.
Asked why Macy told Grayson, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” Crump said he had received treatment for mental health issues. They said he invoked God’s name from the beginning of the encounter and asked for a Bible after deputies went inside.
During Massey’s funeral on Friday, Crump said the video, which he and the family have already seen, “will shock the conscience of America.”
Macy’s father, James Wilburn, demanded that the county court system be completely open and transparent with the public in its investigations and prosecutions.
“The only time I’ll see my child again is when I leave this world,” Wilburn said. “And I never want anyone else in the United States to join this league.”
What happened
Grayson, who was fired last week, is being held in the Sangamon County Jail without bond. If convicted, he faces 45 years to life in prison for murder, 6 to 30 years for battery, and 2 to 5 years for misdemeanor battery.
His attorney, Daniel Fultz, declined to comment Monday.
In a statement, President Joe Biden said he and First Lady Jill Biden were praying for Macy’s family “as they cope with this unimaginable and senseless loss.”
“When we call for help, all Americans – no matter who we are or where we live – must be able to do so without risk to our lives,” Biden said. “Sonya’s death at the hands of a responding officer reminds us that Black Americans often have to fear for their safety in a way that many of us do not have to.”
Macy’s death is the latest example of Black people killed in their homes by police in recent years.
In May, a Hispanic Florida sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Roger Fortson when the senior Air Force airman, armed with a handgun, answered the door of his home in Fort Walton Beach. The deputy, Eddie Duran, was fired.
In 2019, a white Fort Worth, Texas officer shot Atatiana Jefferson through the back window of her home after responding to a non-emergency call reporting that Jefferson’s front door was open. Former officer Aaron Dean was convicted of murder and sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
Sonya Massey release video: Shooting Black woman,What happened
In 2018, a white Dallas police officer fatally shot Botham Jean, who was unarmed, after mistaking her apartment for his own. Former officer Amber Guyger was convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Crump has represented the families in each case as part of his effort to seek accountability for the killings of black people at the hands of police. Crump has also represented relatives of Earl Moore, a Springfield man who died on a stretcher in December 2022.
