Trump asked about Sonya Massey, police immunity

CHICAGO ( NewsNation ) — Appearing at the National Association of Black Journalists ( NABJ ) Convention in Chicago on Wednesday, former President Donald Trump said he was not familiar with the police killing of Sonya Massey , the unarmed Black woman who called 911 for help in her Springfield, Illinois, home.

“I don’t know the exact case,” Trump said. “But I saw something, and it didn’t look; it didn’t look good to me. It didn’t look good to me. Are you talking about the water? Right?”

Former sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in the death of 36-year-old Massey for the July 6 shooting.

Bodycam video released July 22 shows that inside her home, Massey moved a pan of hot water from the stove. Grayson apparently feared she would throw it at him and fired his weapon three times, striking Massey once in the face despite having several nonlethal options, authorities say. Grayson, who is white, has pleaded not guilty.

At the NABJ Q&A, Trump was pressed on his views that police officers should unconditionally receive qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that protects officers from personal liability for violating constitutional rights.

As a result of qualified immunity, even when a court finds that an official or officer has violated someone’s constitutional rights, they can still be protected from civil lawsuits seeking money. The Supreme Court has said that qualified immunity protects officials as long as their actions don’t violate clearly established law or constitutional rights that they should have known about.

The Supreme Court in 2020 decided not to wade into the qualified immunity debate following nationwide protests against racism and police brutality sparked by the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“Well, he (Grayson) might not (receive qualified immunity). I mean, it depends. It depends on what happens,” Trump said. “I’m talking about people that are much different cases. We need to have our police officers have the respect and dignity back. In this particular case (Sonya Massey), I saw something that didn’t look good to me. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all.”

Grayson was vetted and approved for hiring by Sangamon County in May 2023 despite two drunk-driving convictions, the first of which got him ejected from the Army for “serious misconduct,” and having six jobs in four years, including as a sheriff’s deputy in Logan County, where he was reprimanded for ignoring a command to end a high-speed chase and ended up hitting a deer.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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