Body cam footage released of deputy fatally shooting Illinois woman

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Today, officials in Springfield, Ill., released the body-worn camera footage of an encounter between an unarmed Black woman and a sheriff's deputy. The encounter has enraged the community and led to murder charges against the officer. Earlier this month, 36-year-old Sonya Massy called 911 to report a possible home intruder. The officers who responded found no intruder, and the incident ended with Massey's death. Joining us now from member station WBEZ is Mawa Iqbal, who has just finished viewing the videotape. Hi, Mawa.

MAWA IQBAL, BYLINE: Hi. Thanks for having me.

CHANG: Thanks for being with us. So we know that Sonya Massey called police on the night of July 6. Tell us more about what happened after that. What did the video show?

IQBAL: So the video is pretty awful. It's really hard to watch. It's about 16 minutes total. But it starts out pretty normally, I would say. You know, she invites officers into her home. They question her about, like, the possible intruder. And they're talking, even, like, exchanging jokes and laughing at one point.

But you do see that at a certain point, you know, one of the officers tells her to remove a pot of boiling water off of her kitchen stove and onto the counter. And it's not entirely sure what's exchanged between them after that. But it's like a total flip, and the officer gets really aggressive, draws his gun. You know, at this point, Sonya Massey understandably freaks out, throws her hands in the air, says I'm sorry and ducks behind her kitchen counter for cover while the officer closes the gap between her and shoots her three times.

CHANG: Oh, my God. That's absolutely horrific. And since all of that happened, how have people been responding to this?

IQBAL: I mean, it's been just a huge outpouring of grief and frustration and calls for action. I'm just coming out of a press conference with attorney Ben Crump and Sonya Massey's family at the NAACP building here. And they're really frustrated. And they're angry. And they're saying that, you know, Black people, especially Black women need to be more - better protected in this country.

But there have also been a lot of ongoing peaceful protests. A lot of the protesters say they're very thankful for how swiftly the Illinois State Police acted, which they did this investigation immediately after the incident happened. They, you know, looked into the use of force, and they found that the officer's use of force was completely unjustifiable. They even compared it to a scenario where an officer would unnecessarily put himself in front of a moving truck and try to claim self defense.

So it's been a pretty large outpouring of just, you know, outrage. We even have President Joe Biden issuing a statement saying that this is completely senseless and that the family deserves justice. And like I mentioned, too, the family has hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who said that the video was just beyond disturbing to watch.

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BEN CRUMP: Imagine the same way the American conscience was shocked with Emmett Till. I mean, it's that shocking of a video.

CHANG: Well, the officer at the center of all this has since been charged with murder. Tell us more about him. I mean, what do we know so far?

IQBAL: Yeah. So his name is Sean Grayson, and he's been working for the Sangamon County Sheriff's Department for about a year. He's 31 years old, and he's from a neighboring town near Springfield, which is our state capital. And he's currently facing three counts of first-degree murder. He's pled not guilty, but the Sangamon County judge denied releasing him. So he's being held in jail pending his trial. But as far as his employment history, it's pretty interesting. He's bounced around six different police and sheriff's departments over the last four years. And he also has two DUI charges on his record.

CHANG: That is WBEZ's Mawa Iqbal. Thank you so much, Mawa.

IQBAL: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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