{"id":111015,"date":"2025-10-29T21:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T21:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/111015\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T21:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T21:21:08","slug":"former-policeman-found-guilty-of-murder-over-shooting-of-sonya-massey-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/111015\/","title":{"rendered":"Former policeman found guilty of murder over shooting of Sonya Massey | US News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former policeman has been found guilty of second-degree murder following the fatal shooting of a woman in the US.<\/p>\n

Sonya Massey, 36, died after she had called the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office about a suspected intruder outside her home in Springfield, Illinois, on 6 July 2024.<\/p>\n

Sean Grayson, who was a sheriff’s deputy, shot Ms Massey after confronting her about how she was handling a pot of hot water from a stove.<\/p>\n

Grayson and his lawyers argued he feared Ms Massey would scald him with the water.<\/p>\n

\"Sean<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Sean Grayson. Pic: Macon County Jail via AP<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old, who was dismissed from his job after firing three shots in the incident, was found guilty by an Illinois<\/a> jury and could be sentenced to four to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Jurors did not, however, convict Grayson for the first-degree murder charge that prosecutors were seeking, which carries a 45-year term.<\/p>\n

Instead, he was convicted of second-degree murder and his sentence could be halved based upon behaviour behind bars.<\/p>\n

Sentencing is scheduled for 29 January next year.<\/p>\n

Ms Massey’s killing sparked anger in the US and drew the attention of former president Joe Biden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Sonya<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Sonya Massey’s death sparked outrage. Pic: Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Chicago Sun-Times via AP<\/p>\n

Mr Biden said last year: “When we call for help, all of us as Americans – regardless of who we are or where we live – should be able to do so without fearing for our lives.<\/p>\n

“Sonya’s death at the hands of a responding officer reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not.”<\/p>\n

Former vice president, Kamala Harris, also said at the time: “Sonya Massey deserved to be safe.<\/p>\n

“After she called the police for help, she was tragically killed in her own home at the hands of a responding officer sworn to protect and serve.”<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
Wrongly-released migrant sex offender claims police ‘ignored’ him<\/a>
Afghan national charged after triple stabbing in west London<\/a><\/p>\n

The Massey family’s lawyers, Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, said after the seven-day trial: “While we believe Grayson’s actions deserved a first-degree conviction, today’s verdict is still a measure of justice for Sonya Massey.”<\/p>\n

Body camera video showed Ms Massey, who struggled with mental health issues, telling officers “don’t hurt me” and repeating “please God”.<\/p>\n

Grayson saw the pot on the stove and ordered Ms Massey to move it.<\/p>\n

After initially joking with Grayson about how he said he was backing off from the “hot, steaming water”, Ms Massey then replied “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus”.<\/p>\n

Grayson and another deputy, Dawson Farley, then drew their pistols and yelled at her to put the pot down. Grayson told investigators he thought her “rebuke” meant she intended to kill him.<\/p>\n

He then fired three shots, striking Ms Massey below the eye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former policeman has been found guilty of second-degree murder following the fatal shooting of a woman in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-111015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}