Illinois Police Release Body Camera Footage Of Sonya Massey Shooting, Social Media Outraged

Source: Douglas Rissing / Getty

W henever “back the blue” bootlickers respond to anti-cop sentiment by saying, “Everyone hates cops until they need them,” all we have to do is invoke the name Sonya Massey.

Illinois State Police have released body camera footage from two Sangamon County sheriff’s deputies involved in the July 6 shooting and killing of Massey, who called 911 to report a possible “prowler” at her home in Springfield. Massey needed help, but she ended up dead instead.

Content warning: the footage below is disturbing and infuriating.

From CNN :

In the footage, deputy Sean Grayson and another deputy speak calmly with Massey in her home when she goes to the stove to turn off a pot of boiling water. She then picks up the pot and the other deputy steps back, “away from your hot steaming water,” he says.

“I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” she says in response.

“Huh?” the deputy says.

“I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” she repeats.

“You better f**king not or I swear to God I’ll f**king shoot you in the f**king face,” Grayson says.

He then draws his firearm and points it at her, and she ducks and says, “I’m sorry” while lifting the pot, the video shows.

“Drop the f**king pot!” both deputies yell.

Three shots are heard. After a few seconds of silence, one deputy says “shots fired” and calls for emergency medical services.

“Dude, I’m not taking f**king boiling water to the f**king head. And look, it came right to our feet, too,” Grayson says.

Minutes after the shooting, Grayson speaks to another law enforcement figure. “She had boiling water and came at me with boiling water,” he says in the video. “She said she was going to rebuke me in the name of Jesus and came at (me) with boiling water.”

See, this is yet another incident that proves you can’t take a cop’s word at face value.

First of all, the video footage shows that Massey didn’t even go to the kitchen until the cops alerted her to the pot on the stove. She was on the couch on the other side of the room casually talking to the officers before then. They literally sent her to tend to the pot of water and then after her “rebuke” remark — which she said in a tone that many people with ears would argue indicated she was joking — Grayson, who is now charged with Massey’s murder , pretty much went ballistic, despite the fact that there were no indications that Massey was threatening him or his partner with the pot of water. (WTF would she, for no discernable reason, go out of her way to throw boiling water at the cops she called for help?)

Grayson, who reportedly didn’t activate his body camera until after he shot Massey, was indicted by a grand jury last week on three counts of first-degree murder and one count each of aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. He pleaded not guilty and is currently being held without bail. The other deputy involved in the shooting hasn’t been named publicly.

“It is clear that the deputy did not act as trained or in accordance with our standards,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “In times like these, it is crucial for leadership across all sides and spectrums to come together to heal our community.”

So, finally, it appears we have an incident of a cop killing a Black person that even the cops can’t justify. Now, her family needs justice.

See how social media is condemning the shooting below.