The former sheriff’s deputy charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman killed inside her Illinois home, had been employed by a half-dozen police agencies since 2020, according to state law enforcement records.
The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board shows Grayson was hired part time on Aug. 11, 2020, by the Pawnee Police Department. He also was hired part time on Feb. 4, 2021, by the Kincaid Police Department and on May 20, 2021, by the Virden Police Department.
Two months later, he was hired full time by the Auburn Police Department and remained there until May 1, 2022, when he was hired full time by the Logan County Sheriff’s Office. Grayson left Logan County on April 28, 2023, and was hired full time on May 1, 2023, by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office.
He received his part-time Law Enforcement Certification on June 5, 2021, according to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. His certification status currently reads as suspended on the board’s website.
The body cam footage is conclusive. The officer murdered that woman.
She said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.” This caused the officer to become enraged, he told her he would shoot her in her fucking face, and then he did just that.
He claims he felt threatened because she was holding the handles of a pot of boiling water that was set on the counter next to her sink, but he moved closer to her before he shot her. If he felt threatened, why would he move closer to the threat? Also, as soon as the officers drew their weapons and pointed them at her, she let go of the pot and dropped to the floor. While the woman was on the floor, the officers continued to point their guns at her and tell her to drop the pot, even though at that point she was no longer touching the pot. The woman tries to stand up and grab the pot again, I think because she was trying to comply with the officers’ imbecilic commands to drop a pot she wasn’t even holding, and that’s when the one officer shot her in the head.
At one point in the video the officer walks out of the house into the front yard where there are several other officers that had by then arrived on the scene, and the looks on their faces say it all. They knew they were looking at a man who hadn’t just fucked up, but had committed a violent, criminal act. They knew he was totally fucked.