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U.S.|U.S. Opens Investigation Into Killing of Sonya Massey
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/us/sonya-massey-shooting-investigation.html
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The Justice Department notified Sangamon County, Ill., that it had opened a civil rights investigation after reports about the shooting raised “serious concerns.”
Nov. 17, 2024, 12:42 p.m. ET
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the fatal shooting by a sheriff’s deputy of Sonya Massey, a woman who had called the police because she thought a prowler was outside her home and was killed after an exchange with responding officers over a pot of hot water.
In a letter to officials in Sangamon County, the Justice Department said that it had reviewed reports about the shooting of Ms. Massey, who was Black, and that they raised “serious concerns” about the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office’s interactions with Black people and people with behavioral health disabilities.
The Justice Department is also investigating the county and its central emergency dispatch system for possible violations of federal nondiscrimination policies, according to the letter, which a Sangamon County spokesman shared with The New York Times on Sunday.
The deputy, Sean Grayson, who is white, shot Ms. Massey, 36, inside her home in Springfield, Ill., on July 6.
The day before the shooting, Donna Massey, Ms. Massey’s mother, had called 911 and asked for help, saying that her daughter was having a mental breakdown and was vulnerable, according to call recordings that Sangamon County released in August.
The Sangamon County State’s Attorney’s Office said that evidence showed that Mr. Grayson, who has been charged with murder and fired from the sheriff’s office, had not been “justified in his use of deadly force.”
