Source: X photo / X photo
Sonya Massey’s killer should likely never have been on the job in the first place.
The heartbreaking and brutal killing on July 6 of the Springfield, Illinois, mother of two seems to get more devastating with each new set of details released. Late yesterday, ABC News reported that Sean Grayson the (now) former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy who shot the 36-year-old, unarmed Black woman three times with the final shot–his kill shot–fired right into her face, as if to completely obliterate her from ever having existed, had a work history that was a warning. It’s not an unusual detail in killer cop cases, but it always makes the pain worse.
Source: Sangamon County Jail / Sangamon County Jail
According the ABC News report, Sean Grayson was discharged from the Army in 2016 after having served a total of one year, nine months and 19 days.
According to the U.S. Army, minimum service is two years but the initial ask is often for an eight-year commitment. What happened to get him discharged early? The Army won’t say and cited the Privacy Act and Department of Defense policy. Apparently, it prevents them from sharing information about misconduct of “low-level employees or characterization of service at discharge.”
But are there any circumstances under which that information can be released or does the Army have the unregulated right to protect people they can predict will likely commit grievous acts? People not mentally or otherwise well enough to be allowed amongst their ranks.
Post discharge, ABC further reported, Grayson was arrested and charged with back-to-back DUIs in 2015 and 2016. He pleaded guilty to both. But the reasons to keep him off the force don’t end there.
From ABC News:
“The news of [Grayson’s] discharge and DUI offenses comes days after it was revealed through Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board (ILETSB) records obtained by ABC News that Grayson worked for six law enforcement agencies over the last four years.”
Grayson held three different part-time jobs at three different Illinois police departments–the Pawnee Police Department, the Kincaid Police Department and Virden Police Department– between August of 2020 and December of 2021.
Why?
Was he hired in desperation during the pandemic? Why did he never last a year at any of the departments?
Sean Grayson finally got a full-time job at the Auburn Police Department. Consistent with his part-time work, he didn’t last a year there either, having started in July 2021 and leaving in May 2022. The same was true at the Logan County Sheriff’s Office where he almost but didn’t make a year. He worked with them from May 2022 to April 2023.
When he did make a full, continuous year on the job with Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office where he worked from May 2023 to July 2024, it came at the expense of Sonya Massey’s young life.
Sonya Massey’s death marks the latest instance of police killing a Black person in their own home.
Most recently, a deputy in Florida shot and killed Senior Airman Roger Fortson after responding to what turned out to be a false report of an unspecified disturbance in his apartment. Fortson, 23, was shot in his own apartment on May 3 within seconds of opening his front door after Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Eddie Duran responded aggressively to a report of a domestic “disturbance” that a witness claims never existed at that location.
Less than a week after Fortson was killed, the initial shooting narrative provided by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office was definitively undermined by that witness – Fortson’s girlfriend – who said the police responded to the wrong apartment.
Bodycam video footage shows Duran banging loudly on an apartment door. When Fortson – possibly suspecting an intruder – answered the door while brandishing a legally owned gun that was facing down, Duran immediately opened fire and shot the young Airman six times.
It would be one full month before Duran was fired. However, as of Friday, there have been no criminal charges brought in the shooting.
Other notable cases of the police shooting and killing Black people in their own homes include Botham Jean, who died after an off-duty Dallas cop mistook his apartment for hers and incorrectly suspected him as an intruder; Atatiana Jefferson, who was shot through her own bedroom window by a Fort Worth police officer who didn’t identify himself or give a warning; and Breonna Taylor, who was killed in a hail of bullets after police in Louisville executed a no-knock warrant in search of a suspect who was already in custody.
The officers who killed Jean and Jefferson were each subsequently charged with and convicted of murder. However, none of the police officers involved in Taylor’s death have been held accountable.
This is America.
In 2023, Mapping Police Violence, the organization that tracks police killings, cops killed 1,352 people last year. It was the highest recorded number they’ve seen.
In 2024, with 774 people already dead, the police are poised to break their own records. At this writing, they’ve killed 56 more people than they had on this day in record-smashing year of 2023. At this writing, they’ve killed 38 more Black people than they had on this day in the record-smashing year of 2023
With the 10th anniversary of the killing of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on the horizon, Black people are three times as likely to be killed by police as white people.
SEE ALSO:
Cop Who Killed Breonna Taylor Involved In New Incident Pointing Gun At Civilians: Report
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