Illinois woman killed in officer-involved shooting is honored at funeral

(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — A funeral was held Friday for Sonya Massey, the Springfield, Illinois, woman who died after authorities say a police deputy shot her after she called 911 to report a possible intruder.

Sean Grayson, the deputy involved in the shooting who has since been fired, was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct, according to a statement from Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser.

Grayson pleaded not guilty and was denied pretrial release.

“Today is about peace, today is about my big sister. It’s not about that man that’s gonna rot in jail, it’s about my big sister,” Massey’s younger sister, Breeanna Toles, said. “As baby sister, I look back at our text messages. She’d say, ‘I love you, baby sister.’ I hold onto those memories. I wish all of my sisters could be in the room today.”

The Sangamon County State’s Attorney’s Office has not yet released the body camera footage of the incident, but is expected to do so on Monday, July 22.

“I know people wanna see the video, I know people wanna talk about the video; I just ask if you do it, just do it out of respect for us,” Toles said. “It’s not a video you want to see. My dad can’t even sleep.”

Two sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a Springfield, Illinois, residence at about 12:50 a.m. on July 6 to investigate a possible prowler, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office obtained by ABC News.

“At approximately 1:21 a.m., the Deputies reported that shots had been fired, resulting in a female being struck by gunfire,” according to the sheriff’s statement. “Deputies immediately administered first aid until EMS arrived. The woman was transported to St. John’s Hospital, where she was later pronounced deceased. No deputies were injured during the incident.”

The shooting was investigated for use of deadly force by the Illinois State Police (ISP) at the request of the Sangamon County Sheriff’s office. After an investigation and through viewing body-camera footage, Milhiser found that Grayson was not justified in his use of deadly force.

According to charging documents filed in Sangamon County Court, Grayson allegedly shot Massey in the face after the deputy “aggressively yelled” at her to put down a pot of boiling water and she threw it on a couch. Grayson then allegedly discouraged his partner from retrieving a medical kit to render aid to Massey because he allegedly thought the injuries were too severe to revive her, according to prosecutors. Court documents describe Massey as “calm, perhaps unwell, not aggressive” at the time that the deputies responded to her call for help.

According to the family’s attorney, Ben Crump, Massey struggled with her mental health.

The other deputy, who has not been named, proceeded to render aid anyway and stayed with Massey until paramedics arrived, the charging documents say. Grayson did not attempt to render aid, according to the documents.

Grayson only activated his body-worn camera after the shooting, according to the charges. The other deputy had activated his camera upon arriving at the scene, the charging documents say.

Grayson has had six different police jobs in the past four years, according to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. The longest job he has held lasted one year. It’s not clear why he changed jobs during that time span.

Massey’s father, James Wilburn, brought up the former deputy’s employment history during the funeral and called on Illinois lawmakers present to reform the hiring process for police officers and sheriff’s deputies. It’s not clear why he changed jobs during that time span.

“There was all these red flags and yet they still made him a deputy in this county,” Wilburn said. “State senator, introduce the bill tomorrow. You can call it the Sonya Massey bill.”

Crump delivered a call for justice at the funeral.

“We come to fight for justice for Sonya Massey,” he said, “We say to Deputy Sean Grayson: until we get justice, we rebuke you in the name of Jesus. We say to the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department: until we get justice we rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

“I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” was one of the last things Massey said before Grayson shot her, according to Crump.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker released a statement saying that Massey deserved the protection that she called law enforcement to provide.

“My heart breaks for Sonya’s children, for her family and friends and for all who knew and loved her, and I am enraged that another innocent Black woman had her life taken from her at the hands of a police officer,” Pritzker’s statement says.

Grayson’s attorney, Dan Fultz, declined to comment.

ABC News’ Emily Chang contributed to this report.

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