Sonya Massey killing: family accuse police of attempted cover-up

The family of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman who was shot in the face and killed by a white sheriff’s deputy in Illinois, have said police initially tried to cover up her killing.

Police audio obtained by the Guardian features someone on scene the night of Massey’s killing – presumably a deputy – saying Massey’s wound was “self-inflicted”. A dispatcher asks to confirm, and the person on scene repeats “self-inflicted”. The recording is in line with what the family says was misleading information given by police when Massey was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

At a press conference on Tuesday, the family said police initially told Massey’s loved ones she had either killed herself or was killed by an intruder.

“They tried to make me believe that a neighbor had did it,” said Jimmie Crawford Jr, Massey’s former partner and the father of one of her children, who added that law enforcement told nurses at the hospital that Massey had “killed herself”. “How do you get that confused?” said Crawford Jr.

Only after a doctor said Massey’s death was a homicide did law enforcement begin classifying it as a police killing, the family said. Some of Massey’s family did not learn who had actually killed her until they read news reports about the 6 July killing, her father, James Wilburn, said on Tuesday.

The civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Massey’s family, said the US Department of Justice had launched an investigation. Responding to the Guardian’s request for comment, the DoJ said that it “is aware of and assessing the circumstances surrounding the tragic officer-involved death of Ms Sonya Massey and extends condolences to her family and loved ones. The department will continue to track the criminal case opened by the Sangamon county state’s attorney.”

The Sangamon county sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“What we don’t want to happen is a Laquan McDonald situation,” Crump said on Tuesday, referencing the 2015 killing of 17-year-old McDonald in Chicago, who was shot 16 times by police. The incident was caught on video that the police department and former mayor Rahm Emanuel subsequently fought to withhold footage from the public.

Two deputies with the Sangamon county sheriff’s office, in Springfield, the state capital, responded to Massey’s home early on the morning of 6 July. After shining their flashlights in the windows of her home, deputy Sean Grayson and his partner spent several minutes in Massey’s living room, speaking with her about the reason for her call and asking her for identification. At one point, Grayson instructed Massey to remove a pot of boiling water from the stove to avoid starting a fire. Massey walked into the kitchen and began to remove the pot as the officers backed away, saying they were moving away from Massey and the pot.

In the video, Massey asks the officers: “Where you going?” To which Grayson replies: “Away from your hot steaming water.”

Massey responds: “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” at which point Grayson unholsters his gun.

“You better fucking not. I swear to God I’ll fucking shoot you right in your fucking face,” Grayson warns.

As Massey begins to duck, she says “I’m sorry” twice before Grayson closes the distance between the two and fires three shots, striking her just below the eye, killing her.

After shooting her, Grayson attempts to dissuade his partner from tending to Massey. At some point in the aftermath of the shooting, police audio reveals someone saying Massey killed herself.

“Just confirmed: self-inflicted?” a dispatcher asks.

“Self-inflicted,” someone replies.

When Massey’s family arrived at the hospital after she had been pronounced dead, they say police continued to give conflicting versions of events.

Massey’s family said that if it weren’t for Grayson’s partner turning on his body camera, the killing could have been covered up.

“Just imagine if there wasn’t a video, what the narrative would have been,” Crump said.

Massey’s killing has drawn condemnation from Democratic politicians across Illinois and throughout the country, including from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. At Tuesday’s press conference, Crump said the family has spoken to Illinois governor JB Pritzker about the possibility of legislation related to officers such Grayson, who had served with six different departments since 2020. He also has two convictions for driving under the influence, which occurred in 2015 and 2016, according to reporting from multiple outlets.

Crump and Massey’s family have questioned whether Grayson should have been employed as a deputy. And at press conferences on Monday and Tuesday, Wilburn called for Sangamon county sheriff Jack Campbell to resign, “not in the next 24 hours, not in the next 12 hours. Immediately.”