White cop makes brazen prediction after 'murdering' black woman (2024)

A white cop who fatally shot a woman inside her home after she called 911 brazenly claimed he was only in jail for his own protection and 'hopefully I'll be out tomorrow'.

Fired Sangamon County sheriff's deputy Sean Grayson, 30, gunned down Sonya Massey, 36, in her kitchen in Springfield, Illinois, at 1:20 a.m. on July 6.

He was charged with three counts of first degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct on July 17.

When he was booked intoMenard County Jail, footage showed him predicting he would soon be released.

'That's what the state's attorney agreed. That's what the state's attorney made the charges, so. They said this is for my own safety to put me in custody, so here I am,' Grayson, who pleaded not guilty, said.

The officers were discussing the low inmate population in the jail, where only five inmates are detained, and his initial court appearance on July 18.

'Well, this whole SAFE-T Act bulls**t… that's why hopefully I'll be out tomorrow,' Grayson added.

Instead, he was torn to shreds by a judge, who remanded him into custody at least until his next court date on August 9.

The judge said his comments about Massey were 'so far out of bounds of societal norms that it suggests that there's no condition that would be sufficient'.

'Simply no longer working as a police officer or home confinement or electronic monitoring or any other conditions that are oftentimes used cannot sufficiently mitigate the threat of someone who acted in this way,' the judge said.

Elsewhere in the newly released footage, Sangamon County andMenard County sheriff's deputies discussed temporarily keeping his name out of the jail's records.

As theSangamon County deputies left, one of them told Grayson 'these guys will take care of you.'

Menard County deputies at the jail later told him: 'You are free to ask if you need something, we'll get you through it.'

TheMenard County Sheriff's Office denied Grayson was receiving any preferential treatment.

Grayson in his field reportclaimed he shot Massey because he feared she was going to throw a pot of boiling water over him.

He wrote that he believed that when Massey said, 'I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,' that she intended deadly harm.

'I interpreted this to mean she was going to kill me,' Grayson wrote, adding that when he drew his pistol and Massey ducked behind a counter that separated them, he moved around the obstacle fearing that she was going to grab a weapon.

Grayson and a second unidentified deputy answered Massey's call about a suspected prowler just before 1 a.m. on July 6.

Inside her home, Grayson directed her to remove a pan of water from a burner on the stove. Grayson and Massey shared a chuckle as he warily moved away from the 'hot steaming water'.

'Sonya turned to face me holding the pot. I did not know the type of liquid that was boiling,' Grayson wrote in his report three days after the shooting.

'I advised Sonya to put the boiling liquid down. Sonya stated (she) was going to rebuke me in the name of Jesus. She stated this twice. I interpreted this to mean she was going to kill me.'

Grayson then drew his pistol and barked commands to 'drop the (expletive) pot.' Massey ducked behind the counter, rose up and appeared to grab the pan again before diving for cover, he said.

Grayson said he stepped toward and around the counter to keep Massey in sight, wary that she might have a hidden weapon.

'As I approached the cabinet, Sonya stood up from a crouched position, grabbing the pot, raising it above her head and throwing the boiling substance at me,' he wrote.

'I was in imminent fear of getting boiling liquid to my face or chest, which would have caused great bodily harm or death.'

It's unclear from the video whether Massey attempted to toss the pan's contents, and she was obscured from view when Grayson fired three 9mm rounds, one of which struck Massey just below the eye.

His report then indicates he looked down to see the liquid had 'hit my boots and I observed steam coming from the cabinet area.'

By the time Grayson completed the field report July 9, he had been placed on administrative leave.

The document indicates he received department permission to review the body camera video, the bulk of which had been recorded on the other deputy's camera.

Grayson said he thought his body camera was on when the two first met Massey at the door, but he didn't turn it on until just after the shooting.

Masey's mother, Donna, earlier pleaded with dispatchers to not send a 'prejudiced' officer to her daughter's home.

She said in a 911 call on the day beforeher daughter's death that she was worried police would 'make the situation worse,' pleading with the dispatcher: 'I don’t want you guys to hurt her.'

'Please don't send no combative policemen that are prejudiced, please,' the elder Massey said.'I'm scared of the police. Sometimes they make the situation worse'

Donna added that her daughter was suffering a 'mental breakdown.'

'She is not a danger to herself, she's not a danger to me.' She referred to Massey's mental episode as 'paranoid schizophrenic.'

The recordings also show that some officers and first responders discussed whether Massey had shot herself.

An official says in a call to report the police shooting that, 'They are now saying it's self-inflicted.'

Another adds: 'Either self-inflicted or they may have shot her.' It's unclear where the wrong information came from.

The Sangamon County Sheriff's Department is still trying to determine whether Massey's history of mental health issues was relayed to deputies responding.

Massey's family called for the resignation of Sheriff Jack Campbell, arguing that problems in Grayson's past should have precluded a law enforcement assignment.

This included two DUI misdemeanor convictions in 2015 and 2016, which the sheriff was aware of when Grayson was hired in May 2023.

Grayson worked with five different police departments in Illinois over three years and was called a 'bully' by his boss at his previous stop.

'He was acting like a bully. He was wanting me to do stuff that was not kosher,'Girard Police Chief Wayman Meredith told CBS about aMarch 2023 incident.

In a separate incident, an official at the Logan County Sheriff's Department called him out for 'lack of integrity, for lying in his reports, and for what he calls official misconduct.'

'The sheriff and I will not tolerate lying or deception,' an officer tells him in a recording, warning him that 'officers [like you] end up in jail.'

Grayson was then accused of 'abusing his power' by 'harassing' two people during a traffic stop. The pair filed a complaint against the officer, accusing him of, among other things, not respecting the woman's privacy.

He was also told he needed to attend a 'high-stress decision making class'while working in Logan County after he failed to slow down during a vehicle pursuit that was called off.

His discharge from the Army was listed under 'misconduct (serious offense),' according to documents obtained byABC News.

Grayson worked as a wheeled vehicle mechanic for the Army between May 2014 and February 2016, and he left with a rank of private first class.

Massey's family has hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump, whodenounced the killing by the ex-sheriff's deputy as senseless, unnecessary and excessive.

Massey's family has said that shestruggled with mental health issues. She met the deputies at her front door by repeating, 'Please God,' and inside the house she asked Grayson to pass her a Bible.

She reportedly suffered form paranoid schizophrenia.