On July 6, 2024, in Springfield, Ill., Sonya Massey was murdered by Deputy Sean Grayson. She is survived by her family, including two teenage children and her parents.
Massey had called to report an intruder in her home. Shortly after, two officers arrived. One of them was Deputy Grayson. Massey answered the door in her nightgown, letting the officers inside after explaining the situation. Deputy Grayson then asked for identification.
After Massey looks in her purse for a while, struggling to find her ID, deputies point out she still has a pot of boiling water on the stove. It was obviously set before the deputies arrived. She moves to her kitchen to remove the pot from the burner, to which Deputy Grayson remarks that he didn’t want to be near the “hot, steaming water.” Massey replies sarcastically, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
“Huh?” Grayson responded. Massey repeats the joke.
“You better fucking not or I swear to God I’ll shoot you right in your fucking face,” Grayson says as he draws his gun. Massey sinks to the ground, apologizing and gently placing the pot down.
Grayson then shoots Massey point-blank, executing her as she cowers to her knees. Grayson’s as-of-now unidentified partner watches as Massey’s body collapses on the kitchen floor with his gun still drawn.He quickly mentions his intent to retrieve a medkit from their vehicle. Grayson dissuades his partner from doing so, stating that she is certainly dead from the “headshot.”
Following her death, Massey’s family were led by authorities to believe that the suspected intruder may have killed Massey in her home. Without the release of the body cam footage the case would’ve likely been a cover-up, as audio of several members of law enforcement describing her death as “self-inflicted” was released in the days following.
Massey’s case is nothing new, as her murder draws comparison to several other police killings. Massey’s diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and call for assistance bears similarities with Jason Harrison’s killing nine years ago following his mother’s 911 call for assistance following a mental health episode. Grayson’s undue skepticism of Massey’s intent draws comparison to Sandra Bland’s arrest and subsequent death, also in 2015. Massey’s murder took place in her own home, similar to Botham Jean in 2018 and Breonna Taylor in 2020. The point of distinction is how starkly Massey’s killing illustrates the state of policing today.
On July 28, the National Day of Mourning for Sonya Massey, community members gathered at Dallas Police Headquarters on 1400 Botham Jean Blvd. to pay respects, speak on the underlying structures that support anti-Black police violence, and participate in a march into Downtown Dallas. The march was organized by Next Generation Action Network.
“Statistically, the numbers for officer-involved shootings have gotten worse. And if you have [an untreated] mental illness you’re 16 times more likely to be killed by police,” civil rights lawyer and anti-police violence activist Lee Merritt says. “Policy-wise, there are certain aspects of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that have passed [through state governments] such as ending qualified immunity, changing local use of force statutes to reflect Fourth Amendment requirements […] There’s been a lot of noise, in 2022 there were protests in all fifty states, but it has not manifested into any actual policy change. And the numbers haven’t improved”
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was passed by a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, mostly along party-lines with a vote of 220–212 in February 2021. However, negotiations between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate had effectively broken down by September of the same year. By the time Republicans took the House in 2022, Democrats’ position on policing had shifted dramatically from sweeping reform towards greater funding for police to sponsor additional training.
Even when pursuing change by way of publicizing incidents to incite outrage, police brutality cases rarely capture a strong public response on heinousness alone. Kenneth Knotts, for instance, was an Austin resident who was killed by police at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in late 2022. He was tased to death after a lengthy ordeal following a falsely suspected “mental health crisis” in Hutchins. The incident exhibited several faulty procedures on the part of law enforcement. Knotts’ case, sadly, often evades public knowledge. Merritt furrows his brow, at a loss when asked if he’s able to discern what captures the public’s attention. “I used to believe that the release of the video was very important to get people involved. I still believe that. But I’ve seen cases where the video was released and we still didn’t have a national response to what the video showed,” Merritt says.
Merritt spoke at the Dallas March for Sonya Massey’s National Day of Mourning along with Kevin Tarver Sr., father of UNT student Darius Tarver who was shot down by Denton Police. When Tarver Sr. was asked about the media’s role in shedding light on police killings, he pointed out both its positive role and the need for greater action.
“The more media that’s out there, the better the community is able to see what’s been going on for a long time,“ Tarver Sr. says. “We’ve been going through centuries and generations of the same trauma without it getting any better. We went from chains to ropes to now it’s guns, but we still die and there’s still no justice. How do we make it better? […] We can’t just keep marching and protesting saying the same things. These laws and regulations are being sent to our legislators, but zero policies are being passed because police unions are fighting against leaders because they don’t want to lose control.”
Despite the fact that police unions have often established themselves as a base for opposition against any accountability or reform, Grayson, who is currently in custody, is receiving notably less support from his guild. Experts call the move significant, as it shows that police unions are less capable of ignoring public opinion.
As unions in the past have reinstated officers following acts of misconduct, violence, and excessive force in the police departments of Akron, Pittsburgh, and many others, Grayson enjoys much less backing in the aftermath of Massey’s murder.
However, subjecting accountability to such factors as social unrest and public outcry without more protective legislation leaves people (specifically Black women) like Sonya Massey vulnerable to extreme violence from law enforcement. These issues can cross racial boundaries, such as in the case of Tony Timpa’s death in 2016. But as Democrats move away from defunding efforts and Republicans stand firm in conservative ideals, the United States’ political system needs significant reform to effectively protect civilian life, and especially Black life.