Sonya Massey's mother called 911 day before shooting: 'I don't want you guys to hurt her'
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The day before Sonya Massey was fatally shot by a deputy in her kitchen, her 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 you guys to hurt her."
The emergency call was one of three recordings and several dispatch reports released to the public Wednesday morning by Sangamon County. They detail several interactions between Massey, 36, and local law enforcement on the day before she was shot and killed by former Sangamon County Sheriff's deputy, Sean P. Grayson.
In one of the calls, a woman police believe was Massey said people were trying to hurt her. In another, Massey called 911 and said her neighbor hit her with a brick, after which Massey checked into a hospital "to seek treatment of her mental state," the dispatch record says.
Grayson has been charged with Massey's murder. He pleaded not guilty in Sangamon County Court on July 18 and remains in custody. It's unclear whether Grayson and the other deputy, who did not fire his weapon, knew about the 911 calls or Massey's mental health history when they responded to Massey's home over a possible intruder.
Massey's family members and civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, have acknowledged on several occasions that Massey struggled with her mental health.
"She was dealing with some issues," Crump said in an appearance in Springfield on July 22. "She needed a helping hand. She didn't need a bullet to the face."
In the 911 call placed shortly after 9 a.m. on July 5, Donna Massey described her daughter's behavior and what she was experiencing. "The mental health people told me to call 911 because she could get in her car and kill herself or somebody. She's run a couple of red lights," she told dispatch.
Donna Massey said Sonya Massey wasn't a danger to herself and "she's not a danger to me."
"I don't want you guys to hurt her, please," she added.
Just before the end of the call, Donna Massey told dispatch about not sending any "combative policemen who are prejudiced. I'm scared of the police. Sometimes they make (the situation) worse."
Talking to Springfield police at her mother's house about an hour later, Sonya Massey said she didn't want to seek treatment. She spoke to emergency medical technicians at the scene and "both cleared her," the report read.
But Massey did go to a hospital later that afternoon "to seek treatment of her mental state" after an alleged confrontation with her neighbor.
There, Massey told Sangamon County Sheriff's deputy Shane Matli about a neighbor who broke the driver's side window of her Chevy Equinox with a brick. Massey then told the deputy she broke the window on the back driver's side "in an attempt to get into the car to get away. She was unable to get in through the back, so she ripped out the driver side window in order to gain entry into the vehicle" resulting in some minor scrapes.
The narrative mentioned that Massey recently had been released from a mental health facility in Granite City.
Massey shared paperwork with Matli from the Mobile Crisis team, a co-responder program between Springfield Police and Memorial Behavioral Health, dated from July 3. Massey was out with Mobile Crisis and Springfield Police "who attempted to run her off the road," she told Matli.
A seven-minute 911 call placed at 12:49 p.m. on July 5 features an expletive-filled conversation that seemed to be between Massey and the neighbor.
It also was believed that Massey called 911 at 10:27 p.m. on July 4 about "(somebody) trying to hurt me." When the dispatcher asked who was trying to hurt her, she replied "a lot of them."
In a message from 2:02 the morning of the shooting, someone writes that "(we) were under the impression it was self-inflicted until just a minute," according to a dispatch report.
The fact that the Illinois State Police were called in shortly after the shooting "raised questions with us, too," a response said.
Several family members last week insisted they weren't able to get a straight version of what happened to Massey at the scene.
Jimmie Crawford, the father of Massey's youngest daughter, Jeanette "Summer" Massey, said a family friend heard police telling HSHS St. John's Hospital nurses that Massey killed herself.
"Not once was I told the officer did it," Crawford said.
Crawford was at Massey's house later on the morning of the shooting.
Contributing: Christopher Cann, USA TODAY
Contact Steven Spearie: [email protected]; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.