An Illinois county has agreed to pay $10 million to the family of Sonya Massey, an unarmed Black woman who was fatally shot by a white sheriff’s deputy last year after she called 911 because she thought a prowler was outside her home.
The Sangamon County Board voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve the settlement following intensive negotiations with representatives of Ms. Massey’s family, it said.
“No price paid can take back the actions of a rogue former deputy, but this agreement is an effort to provide some measure of recompense to the Massey family for their unimaginable loss,” Andy Van Meter, the board chairman, said in a statement on Wednesday. “The county remains committed to working with the community to strengthen policies to try to ensure tragedies like this never happen again.”
Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Massey family, called the settlement “bittersweet.” He said in an online news conference that the family was also seeking legislative changes and a criminal conviction of Sean Grayson, the former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy who has been charged with murdering Ms. Massey, 36, in her home in Springfield, Ill., on July 6, 2024.
Ms. Massey’s family has said that she was experiencing a mental health crisis when she called 911 to report a prowler outside her home. A day earlier, Ms. Massey’s mother, Donna Massey, called 911 to say that her daughter was having a mental breakdown and asked the police to recognize that she was in a vulnerable state.
“I don’t want you guys to hurt her, please,” she told a dispatcher.
When Mr. Grayson and another deputy responded to Sonya Massey’s call the next day, they searched outside her home and then followed her inside.
After she provided the deputies with identification, she went to the kitchen, removed a pot of water from the stove and put it on the counter. As she was handling the pot, several feet from the deputies, Ms. Massey told them, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” body camera footage shows.
Mr. Grayson told Ms. Massey that she “better not,” using expletives, and threatened to shoot her in the face.
Seeing the gun, Ms. Massey put her hands in the air and said, “I’m sorry” while ducking behind the counter, prosecutors said. Mr. Grayson approached the counter with his gun, and Ms. Massey stood up, grabbed the pot and tossed out the water, they said.
Mr. Grayson fired three shots, striking Ms. Massey once in the face, prosecutors said.
He then discouraged his colleague from getting a medical kit from his vehicle because of the severity of Ms. Massey’s injury, prosecutors said. The second deputy still rendered aid and stayed with Ms. Massey until help arrived, prosecutors said.
Mr. Grayson, who was fired after the shooting, was charged in July with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. He has pleaded not guilty.
The Sangamon County sheriff, Jack Campbell, resigned in August under pressure from Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and members of the public, who had called on him to step down.
Mr. Campbell had hired Mr. Grayson, even though he knew that the deputy had two convictions for driving under the influence, including one that had led to his premature discharge from the Army in February 2016, according to personnel records released by the county.
Ms. Massey’s father, James Wilburn, said at the news conference on Wednesday that the family was urging Illinois lawmakers to strengthen background checks for prospective police officers.
Mr. Wilburn said the deputy who shot his daughter “should have never been hired.”
Last month, just days before President Trump took office, the Justice Department resolved a civil rights investigation into Sangamon County’s policing practices that it had opened after the shooting.
The department said it had not found that the county was providing police services in a discriminatory manner.
Still, as part of an agreement to end the investigation, the Justice Department said that the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office and emergency dispatch operation must review and update their policies and training.
The county must also create a mobile crisis team that includes trained behavioral health staff.
At the family’s news conference with Mr. Crump on Wednesday, Raymond Massey, Sonya Massey’s uncle, said her death had “affected our family in ways that are unimaginable.”
“We know that this is the beginning of the fight,” he said. “And we’re willing to do the work and put the work in until we seek full justice for the murder of Sonya.”
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