Sonya Massey’s family reach a $10 million settlement following fatal 911 call
Sangamon County in Illinois, has agreed to a $10 million settlement with the family of the late Sonya Massey.
Six months after what turned into a fatal 911 call in 2024, Sangamon County officials have agreed to a $10 million settlement with the family of Sonya Massey, the 36-year-old mother of two who was shot and killed by county law enforcement.
The legal teams for the Massey family and Sangamon County’ reached a settlement after mediation last week and unanimous approval by the county board on Tuesday.
“The process leading to this settlement unfolded over several days of intensive confidential discussions and negotiations,” Andy Van Meter, Sangamon County’s board chairman, wrote in a memo, per NBC News. “The county will continue to work to ensure that its law enforcement and emergency response systems operate effectively, with necessary safeguards in place to prevent future tragedies.”
As previously reported by theGrio, on July 6, Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman and mother of two teen children, was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy in her Springfield, Illinois, home after calling 911, fearing that a potential intruder was at her residence. Confirmed by her family to have previously been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Massey told the two officers arriving on the scene she had “taken [her] medicine” and was following instructions to move a pot of water boiling on her stove when she was shot three times by Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson.
Subsequently, Grayson was fired by the department and charged with first-degree murder in Massey’s death.
“If it were not for the body cam footage, we would not have known that this occurred,” James Wilburn, the father of Sonya Massey, previously told “CBS Mornings.”
Reigniting public outrage surrounding George Floyd’s murder and police brutality against Black people, Massey’s murder prompted an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department and a central Illinois sheriff’s office to require more training on de-escalation techniques, non-discriminatory policing, and proper ways to deal with individuals with mental health disabilities.
On what would have been Massy’s 37th birthday, attorney Ben Crump and Massey’s family have released the following statement:
“The settlement reached by civil attorneys for the senseless death of Sonya Massey brings some measure of accountability and closure to those who loved her, but nothing can remove the persistent pain, frustration, and grief caused by her senseless death. The use of deadly force during that encounter is as stunning as it is deeply, deeply sad. It is the hope of Sonya’s family that her death can bring change and that the community will continue to say her name so no one ever needlessly loses their life again when all they are asking for is help.”
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