Massey family meets with Congressional Black Caucus for police reform push

WASHINGTON — Family members of Sonya Massey, the Springfield woman shot and killed in July by a sheriff’s deputy who responded to her 911 call, met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and survivors from other families on Friday in a push for criminal justice reform.

“She was assasinated,” Donna Massey, Sonya Massey’s mother, said when discussing Sonya Massey’s death.

The families were joined by renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who expressed frustration with the slow pace of change. A bill known as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act , introduced in 2021, remains stalled in Congress.

“Had we gotten reform, how many families up here like Sonya Massey and others would have been spared their loved one becoming another hash tag?” Crump said.

Massey was killed in the early morning hours of July 6 after she’d called 911 to report a suspected prowler. In a sudden escalation captured on the law enforcement officers’ body cameras , Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson shot Massey three times, with one fatal blow to the head after she moved a pot of boiling water from the stove.

“She was going through a crisis,” Raymond Massey, Sonya Massey’s uncle, said. “She called the police and ended up getting killed in her own home, and that’s been the worst for my family.”

Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nevada), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, told family members of Massey, Breonna Taylor and Tyre Nichols that he and other elected officials are still fighting to pass the bill.

“The Congressional Black Caucus affirms our commitment, and reaffirms our commitment to the families, that we are continuing to do all that we can to advance meaningful bipartisan public safety legislation to create safer communities and to hold police officers accountable who violate the public trust,” he said.

Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed by authorities during a botched 2020 raid in Louisville, Kentucky, said she was “tired of begging people to do the right thing. … They murdered Breonna and I am dying!”

RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Tyre Nichols, who died in 2023 after a beating by Memphis police officers, had strong words in urging passage of the bill.

“We have so many kids that are dying by the hands of the police. … I want to say to Congress: all these kids and all our kids that are being murdered, their blood is on your hands,” she said as a trial against three officers charged in her son’s death continued .

Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth are among a group of lawmakers who reintroduced the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act last month. It focuses on reforms in a number of areas including collecting data on police misconduct aimed at preventing bad actors from being hired at other law enforcement agencies.

Based on records previously obtained by WCIA, Grayson had a history of complaints and disciplinary action when he worked at the Logan County Sheriff’s Department.

Crump believes that kind of reform could’ve prevented Massey’s death.

“Because that officer, who had been in six police departments in four years, would not have been on the force, and he would not have had the ability, with a gun and a badge, to shoot Sonya Massey in her face,” Crump said.

Along with calls for change at the national level, there have also been calls for change locally. Sangamon County created the Massey Commission in response to Sonya Massey’s death.

It aims to look at the county’s processes and ways to improve and prevent something like Massey’s death from happening again.

“We want to look at all of those different sectors and really focus and channel it into real change, not just something that we talk about and keep continuing to have those conversations,” State Sen. Doris Turner (D-Springfield), said.

Turner and Sangamon County Board Chariman Andy Van Meter announced the creation of the comission last month.

The comission will hold its first listening session Monday at 6 p.m. at Union Baptist Church in Springfield.

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