A former Illinois deputy has been sentenced to 20 years for fatally shooting Sonya Massey, a Black woman who called 911 for help.
Sean Grayson, 31, was convicted in October of second-degree murder. Grayson, who is white, received the maximum possible sentence and has been in police custody since being charged in the killing.
Massey’s family members, who were sitting in the court, celebrated his sentence with a loud cheer: “Yes!” The judge admonished them.
Grayson apologized during the sentencing, saying he wished he could bring Massey back and spare her family the pain he caused.
“I made a lot of mistakes that night. There were points when I should’ve acted, and I didn’t. I froze,” he said. “I made terrible decisions that night. I’m sorry.”
I remember when this was on the news, I watched the video.
I want to believe the cop is actually sorry but I can’t trust any cop at this point.
Those tats say he is not sorry. He has some nice prison tats already.
According to body camera footage, Grayson and sheriff’s Deputy Dawson Farley, who was not charged, searched Massey’s yard before meeting her at her door. Massey appeared confused and repeatedly said, “Please, God.” The deputies entered her house, Grayson noticed the pot on the stove and ordered Farley to move it. Instead, Massey went to the stove, retrieved the pot and teased Grayson for moving away from “the hot, steaming water.” From this moment, the exchange quickly escalated. Massey said: “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.” Grayson drew his sidearm and yelled at her to drop the pan. She set the pot down and ducked behind a counter. But she appeared to pick it up again. That’s when Grayson opened fire on the 36-year-old single mother, shooting her in the face. He testified that he feared Massey would scald him. Grayson was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, which could have led to a life sentence, but a jury convicted him of the lesser charge. Illinois allows for a second-degree murder conviction if evidence shows the defendant honestly thought he was in danger, even if that fear was unreasonable.
That’s a pretty fucked up situation. Would have been nice if they would have just left.
There has to be more to it than the article quotes,
I saw the video of it. He has no excuse to responding to her the way he did. She was not threatening in any way. 100% calm until he yelled at her and pointed his gun at her so she hid behind the counter. This prick deserves everything he has coming to him in prison.
Pretti murder reminded me of this one. should have got life.
Good! Fingers crossed it stays out of any political lens.
Gosh this is just depressing to read, no wonder people hate cops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sonya_Massey
Its not even this, it’s so much simpler. Mistakes happen, but so many of their “mistakes” are 100% avoidable and no one is ever accountable for their shitty actions. Thats the main reason I hate cops. They’re arrogant assholes that just like to abuse citizens, and even when faced with irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing, “they did nothing wrong” by their dept.
Fast food workers are held under higher moral standards than the fucking cops. ACAB.
18 year olds in Iraq were held at a higher standard than police in the US. This could’ve been avoided if white America recognized police brutality in black neighborhoods
They arrogantly call themselves highly trained, highly paid professionals but when faced with reality they often panick and just start shooting.
Cops will go fucking nuts on someone merely because they don’t comply; their pea-brains simply cannot tolerate anyone who dares to question their authority.
Dude shouldn’t have even gone into the house, he refused to leave and deescalate, then murdered a woman instead of just walking out of the door of a place he didn’t even belong.
They go nuts on people who do comply. They give conflicting instructions and then punish you when you don’t comply. ICE will ask for your ID and then walk away with it and never give it back.
They are all human garbage fires and I can’t wait for Nuremberg 2.0.
The problem is fear. In general, we don’t teach cops how to deal with complex situations. We don’t teach them how to deescalate potentially dangerous situations. We don’t teach them how to peacefully resolve conflicts. All they are taught now is Killology (AKA Warrior Training).
Grossman’s America is a terrifying place where police are both the primary targets of and defenders against superpredation. “Increasingly the police must face organized opponents armed with assault rifles and bombs,” Grossman says at the outset of the class, citing an “explosion in violent crime” and an “extraordinary rise in violence” in the streets of America.
…
Grossman maintains that America is now scarier than ever—and that cops may well be the ones with the most to fear. “We know that if it were not for all the body armor, bulletproof vests worn by officers, law enforcement fatalities in the United States would easily be double or even triple what they are today,” Grossman asserts. “If this is not war, then you tell me what is.”
Cops out there now are terrified that they are constantly in the sights of one bad guy or another. They are in a state of constant terror that anyone might pull out a gun and murder them. People in that mindset cannot be trusted to be “peace” officers.
There’s some of that, but I think it’s pride more than fear. Cops hate it when you don’t “respect their authority” or dare to assert your rights. They think they have the right to do whatever they want, no matter what the law says…
Is this the guy that teaches them when they murder someone it will be the best day of their lives?
The problem is cowardice.
Grossman maintains that America is now scarier than ever—and that cops may well be the ones with the most to fear. “We know that if it were not for all the body armor, bulletproof vests worn by officers, law enforcement fatalities in the United States would easily be double or even triple what they are today,” Grossman asserts. “If this is not war, then you tell me what is.”
This man has a financial interest in keeping officers as scared as possible so their Chief can book training courses with this guy.
I wouldn’t take whatever he says as having any basis in reality.
You and I know that, but the cops he’s training eat that shit up and then wet their pants in terror when an acorn falls on their squad car .
One of the fucking greatest things I’ve ever seen.
Dude apparently thinks he has been shot, so of course, what makes sense to do is:
‘Combat roll’
(Utterly tactically useless given the angle from where he thought he was being shot from)
‘Suppressive fire toward a restrained person in custody in a police cruiser…’
(“I need to shoot my partner’s car!”)
‘… narrowly missing his partner cop…’
‘… and with flimsy ass shit tier residential townhomes as the back stop beyond the car.’
That guy needs to be sentenced to only be allowed to appear in public in a full on clown suit for 5 years.
Its actually a miracle he didn’t kill anyone.
Jesus I had forgotten about that one…
It’s not even about anyone daring to question the authority, it’s anyone who they decide in that very moment is a threat (based on no logic at all). There are so many videos of American cops demanding people to do things they clearly can’t do or just are impossible to do, like two different things that are exclusive to each other. And tons of other videos of people doing exactly what they’re told but no the cop(s) already decided that they’re a threat no matter what.
It didn’t seem like at any point the woman was in a state of mind to calmly invite them in. It’s like they always make the choice that maximizes their chance of shooting someone.
I saw footage of a different encounter where a bunch of police were hanging out right at her backdoor even though she was clearly distressed and didn’t even think about giving her space. Pretty sure they also shot her through a screen door while she was still in her house.
The woman reported a prowler and they had already checked the outside of the house. I wonder if they actually needed to go inside the house in the first place.
I wouldn’t voluntarily allow cops into my house unless the situation required them to enter my house.
Agreed. I wouldn’t let one of them shitbags in my house if they were offering me a sack full of cash and a harem of consenting porn stars unless it was absolutely required by law. If I get burgled I’m just going down to give my statement so I can get a case for my insurance company because I know they ain’t gonna investigate it and by allowing them in the house my odds of dying increase greatly.
Nice skull tats that asshole has.
“are we the baddies?”
Thank fuck. It feels like everytime I read a story like this, the officer in question is just “reprimanded”, “placed under administrative leave” or “Not charged under due to immunity” or some shit.
I hope fuckers like these get what’s coming to them.
I feel like that’s 99% of cases and it’s really disheartening. Good to see them actually get what should have happened to all the others a long time ago.
I’ve lived in IL my whole life. For half of that, the state was so corrupt that multiple governors were indicted for various crimes and ended up in jail. After Blagoyavich or whatever his name was, the pendulum swung hard back the other way. Today, after being a state employee for the last 15-years in addition to living here, I am glad we have accountability. I feel safe knowing my state and local cops can be held to account when things like this happen. It makes me, and them I’d like to think, feel safer in the community.
Nothing and no one is perfect, but Pritzker will probably go down as one of the better governors this state has had. And that’s saying something from a closeted anarchist who has despised this system for decades!
Cops have a stressful, often life-threatening job, no doubt. But so do a lot of people. My family has a history of working in psychiatric lock-ups with extremely violent mentally ill and developmentally abnormal patients, most of whom are being held because of murders and rapes they’ve committed (usually of their own families), and who would murder you if they had the chance/inclination to do so, because they simply don’t know any better. The nurses don’t carry firearms, they’re trained with a few restraining grappling technique and a lot of deescalation tactics. They don’t even have tasers. Put an armed cop in that situation and you’d have a ward full of corpses within a few days. Hell, put a regular prison guard in that situation and you’d have a similar outcome. But my family members aren’t MMA experts, and have never been [seriously] injured in their job. They’ve been properly trained, that’s all. Cops are trained like they’re being shipped off to 'Nam in 1969 to fight an unseen, non-uniformed enemy.
Dutch cops often walk around without guns.
Definitely a boys club and training issue in America.
The Netherlands doesn’t have more guns than people though. The US does.
Edit- this is not excusing cops shooting people, I am just saying that gunless cops makes more sense in a country where everyone isn’t armed to the teeth
Delivery drives have a more dangerous job than cops
I’d probably carry a gun as a delivery driver in some neighborhoods too
Ironically every corporation bars you from doing that because they would be liable. There are probably some small mom-and-pop places that advise drivers to carry. And of course plenty do despite the rules against it.
Switzerland has almost as many guns as people. But they are treated as a tool, no one really wants, not like a dick extension
This was interesting. Most of these jobs are dangerous because they increase your exposure to car accidents it looks like.
I had heard that most police officers deaths are from car accidents, but this says “violence by other people or animals”. Must be just their category name, not because animals are a significant danger. That category is shared with one other profession in the top 25 most dangerous, supervisor of mechanics at number 19. I guess bossing around people with a lot of potentially dangerous tools at hand goes bad fairly often.
“Often life threatening” is not likely to be true. Sometimes, yes. Often? No chance.
RIP Sonya Massey. 20 years isn’t really enough. But when it comes to police the bar is so low for them to get held accountable it is better than nothing.
I’m actually surprised, I read this story a while back and expected it like so many US injustices, particularly right now, and that the cop would get a paid vacation. I was deeply depressed.
I mean I still am, but I was back then too.
Either way, I hope he experiences in prison what cops who go to prison experience. 20 years isn’t enough to make someone feel the pain they’ve inflicted on others by taking a life for no reason, and he will likely get out early if he lives, but at least I know however long he’s in there will be either in sheer, constant terror, or utter isolation as he’s kept separate from the general population.
He will be out in 5-7.
No, sir, I think the problem was the part where you shouldn’t have acted, but did.
20 years doesn’t feel like it should be the maximum sentence.
I remember watching the video after it happened. Damn it takes a long time for this shit to go through the courts.
Imagine youre in an emergency, call the hotline that specifically exists to HELP people in emergencies as quickly as possible, 24/7, and they fucking kill you.
It’s really weird that they capitalize “black” in these stories. I get that it’s relevant to mention because these things happen to black people a lot more often, but that doesn’t make it a proper noun. They didn’t capitalize “white”. It seems like pandering and it’s kind of gross and racist in its own way.
Someone said in a separate post, where the same question was brought up, that it’s because Black refers to a specific cultural group while white doesn’t (that’d be Irish-American or whatever)
You don’t have to always assume it’s malice.
Ah yes, the historic culture of “black” stretching from New Zealand to Africa and South Asia and South America. You know, all very monocultured.
The largest /s imaginable
Black people aren’t a monolith either though. They come from all over the world, just like white people. That explanation is offensive in a totally different way.
There’s even an entire Key and Peele skit about it.
Actually all monorities are a monolith, which is why you can refer to them using using the singular noun (‘The Jew’) and everybody will know you’re talking about all of them. Hitler wrote a entire book about this.
I get your sarcasm but I bet this post is going to get a ton of downvotes.
So that means everyone with a certain skin tone MUST be in the same specific cultural group?
It’s not malice but it is mistaken. “White” is used as a general term as well.
It’s almost a proper noun thing. It’s not a race thing. It’s a language thing.
In the same exact quote they don’t capitalize “white”. It sure looks like a pandering thing.
I tend to avoid stories like that because its obvious the author is trying to push in a racial divide amongst its readers.
See I don’t have a problem race being discussed if it has a direct role in the situation. The capitalization is weird though.
I feel its relevant to mention the race of the victim because racism in law enforcement seems like a potential cause in a lot of these incidents. Statistically black people are much more likely to be the victim, we can’t fix that unless we acknowledge it. Mentioning the race of the cop, not so much. It’s more of systemic issue. Black cops seem to carry a lot of the same biases.
If you can read the story and still get the message without adding the race of those involved, then race is not a necessary addition.
