Police union will not fight the firing of sheriff's deputy who fatally shot Sonya Massey
The sheriff's deputy facing a murder charge for gunning down Sonya Massey won't be defended by the local police union, and his boss is under fire from the slain woman's family who wants him to resign.
Those were two of the more notable developments in another whirlwind day of briefings and community reaction to Massey's shocking case, which has spurred national outrage across the nation and calls for better police training.
The family and civil rights icons attorney Ben Crump and Rev. Al Sharpton held a rally in Chicago shortly after the union’s announcement, where they called on Sheriff Jack Campbell to step down and for a reform law to be passed in Massey’s name. Campbell has asked the family for forgiveness but said he won't resign.
“When I heard and saw the video, I was as outraged as I was when I saw the video of George Floyd,” Sharpton said. “It is the negligence of this government’s response to all of these killings that created the climate that led to Sonya.”
Massey, 36, was shot in the face while standing in her kitchen by then-Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson on July 6. Police say Massey had called 911 for help with a possible intruder and Grayson fired three shots at her while commanding her to put down a pot of boiling water.
“The Union has determined that it will NOT be proceeding any further,” said Shawn Roselieb of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council. He said the union initially represented the officer and tried to get him reinstated, actions that are standard union procedure.
“Our obligations under the collective bargaining agreement and to our members do not take away from the sympathy we feel for the family and loved ones of Sonya Massey,” Roselieb said in a statement shared with USA TODAY. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them and with all those impacted by this tragedy.”
The decision comes the day after a listening session organized by the Justice Department for the grieving community grew heated as the sheriff who hired Grayson called for forgiveness but declined to resign.
Grayson was fired from his post after he was indicted on multiple charges including murder. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in jail without bond. An attorney representing Grayson did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's requests for comment about Grayson's DUIs and alleged misconduct.
DUIs and integrity concerns:What we know about the deputy who killed Sonya Massey
Calls for a ‘Sonya Massey Law’
Sharpton, who has presided over numerous funerals of Black people gunned by police, called for a new police reform law to be passed in Massey’s name similar to the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that was introduced by Democrats in Congress in 2021. It was never passed.
The law would have prevented Sangamon County from hiring Grayson after it was clear that he had flunked out of several other law enforcement agencies in the preceding years, Sharpton said.
“Why was he on the force,” asked Sharpton, noting Grayson worked for five different law enforcement agencies in the years before joining the Sangamon department. “They always want to ask what is wrong with the victim; they never ask what is wrong with the system that arms and empowers these people.”
Sharpton and Crump’s stop at the rally at a historic Black church on the West Side of Chicago is the latest for the pair who were recently in Wisconsin advocating for justice for D'Vontaye Mitchell, a 43-year-old Black man killed by security guards on June 30 outside a downtown Milwaukee hotel.
‘A beautiful Black queen’
Massey’s mother, two children and several other close relatives also attended the rally in Chicago.
“Sonya was a beautiful Black queen,” said Raymond Massey, an uncle, adding she regularly called to talk about her kids and what was going well in her life. “She just so happened to be my niece and she should be here with us today.”
The 36-year-old mother experienced mental health issues and her final days were overshadowed by an overwhelming sense of her death approaching, her mother, Donna Massey said.
Malachi Hill Massey, Sonya Massey's son, was the first in the family to be notified about the death. The 17-year-old said at the rally that he received a phone call from the sheriff’s office the morning after the shooting, but he was not told who shot his mother.
The family said the law enforcement agency initially suggested it wasn’t clear who killed Massey. They learned through the media that it was a sheriff’s deputy who shot her.
“Their words will ring hollow until we see their actions,” pledged Crump, who has taken on the case. “She needed a helping hand; she did not need a bullet to the face.”
What to know about the deputy who killed Massey?
Between his time in the Army and at a half dozen law enforcement agencies in Illinois, Grayson had a history of trouble with the law.
Grayson’s first DUI case was in August 2015 while he was in the Army and his second came in July 2016. The second DUI came after being discharged from the Army in February for "misconduct" that was described only as a "serious offense," according to his personnel file obtained by The State Journal-Register, part of the USA TODAY Network. He pleaded guilty in both cases, records show.
He bounced around six different Illinois law enforcement agencies in four years, according to his personnel file and the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board.
A supervising officer at the Logan County Sheriff's Office, where he worked in 2022, rebuked Grayson for allegedly lying in reports and showing a general lack of integrity, according to a recording obtained by CBS News.
Wayman Meredith, the police chief for Girard, Illinois, flagged Grayson's conduct to the Logan County Sheriff's Office, saying the deputy "was acting like a bully," according to CBS. "He was wanting me to do stuff that was not kosher."
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