Former police officer charged with Sonya Massey’s murder testifies his actions ‘met the threat level’

PEORIA — A white former police officer accused of killing an unarmed black woman in her Springfield-area home last year testified Monday that he fired his gun in self-defense and that his actions “met the threat level.”

Sean Grayson, a former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy, is on trial for murder in the killing of Sonya Massey, 36, in her kitchen after he called police on July 6, 2024, to report a suspected prowler.

This police shooting and subsequent criminal trial attracted national attention, due to the racial dynamics involved and the graphic nature of police body camera footage showing Massey’s death.

Grayson’s decision to make a surprise appearance on the stand as the defense’s first witness represented a high-stakes legal gamble aimed at clearing his name, and drew mockery on several counts from Donna Massey — Sonya’s mother — who sat in the Peoria County courtroom.

Grayson, 31, seemed relaxed as he testified that he shot Massey in self-defense because he believed she was about to throw a pot of boiling water on him. He said he ordered Massey to remove the pot from his stove when she told him she would “rebuke him in the name of Jesus”.

“It threw me off; it came out of nowhere,” Grayson said of Massey’s comment.

Body-worn camera footage presented by prosecutors during the trial shows that Massey had already removed the pot when Grayson said he would “shoot her in the face” and pointed the gun at her. Massey then threw her hands in the air, said, “I’m sorry” and hid behind her counter.

“We are trained to use whatever force will achieve compliance and bring the situation under control,” Grayson said. “In this situation, I was up to the threat level, and the only thing that could have stopped the threat was my service weapon.”

Grayson then testified that he closed the distance between himself and Massey to “have a direct line of sight on her” and that he intended to arrest her for aggravated assault on a police officer. That’s when, Grayson said, Massey jumped up, grabbed the water jug ​​and made a throwing motion at it. Grayson then shot Massey three times, with one bullet hitting her just below her left eye.

Several members of the Massey family sat in the courtroom gallery, as Grayson testified.

Malachi Hill, Sonya’s teenage son, looked at the former police officer expressionlessly. Donna Massey, Sonya’s mother, made a “hmph” sound several times during Grayson’s testimony.

Across the aisle, Grayson’s family members prayed silently and read a Bible.

Prosecutors argued that Grayson killed Massey without legal justification because “he was angry with her.”

During a cross-examination lasting about five minutes, Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser questioned Grayson about how the details of his testimony did not match what he wrote in his incident report that night.

“You didn’t write to tell Sonya Massey that ‘you better not do it or you’ll shoot her in the fucking face’, did you?” » asked Milhiser.

“I don’t remember,” Grayson replied.

“If [the other responding officer] If his body camera was off, no one would have heard you say that,” Milhiser said.

Several police use-of-force experts, testifying for the prosecution last week, said Grayson violated several generally accepted de-escalation tactics. Seth Stoughton, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, said Grayson should not have approached the counter behind which Massey was hiding.

“The appropriate response is to deprive her of the opportunity [to throw the pot] even leaving the house,” Stoughton said. “Grayson made a series of decisions that were not tactically sound.”

Stoughton — who testified in the criminal prosecution of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis cop convicted of killing George Floyd in 2020 — analyzed body camera footage from Grayson’s colleague. He broke down the moments leading up to the shooting frame by frame, starting with Massey telling Grayson that she would “rebuke him in the name of Jesus.”

“She says things that don’t quite make sense in context … indications of some sort of mental health issues,” Stoughton said. “But there is certainly no behavior here to show intent to use [the pot] like a weapon. »

Grayson had only been with the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office for a little over a year before the shooting. He worked as a night patrolman and testified that Massey lived in a “high-crime” neighborhood on Springfield’s south side.

Massey’s murder sparked outrage in the Springfield community. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who worked with the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, who was killed by Louisville police officers in 2020, helped the Massey family secure a $10 million settlement with Sangamon County. He is expected to attend the trial this week.

Meanwhile, Springfield-area activists traveled the 75 miles to Peoria each day of the trial to hold rallies outside the courthouse. Grayson, who faces three counts of first-degree murder, could face life in prison if convicted.

Attorneys for the prosecution and defense say they expect to present their closing arguments by Wednesday.