My message to the upcoming National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago is basic: Report and tell us the truth on the police slaying of a Black woman in her Illinois home.
Yes, send a delegation to Springfield to investigate how the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department could hire Sean Grayson in the first place. I ask because I saw his skull tattoos on his arm in the booking photo after his first-degree murder indictment. I ask because I am curious why the state’s Fraternal Order of Police is rallying for Grayson’s reinstatement, calling his firing unjustified.
How many other Deputy Graysons are on the sheriff’s payroll? I cannot trust the emaciated local newspaper to explore this and a range of other questions simmering like the boiling pot of water that triggered Grayson to shoot Sonya Massey below her left eye. In his callous inhumanity, Grayson didn’t even want to try to save her life as she succumbed on her kitchen floor. “Nah, she’s done,” his partner’s bodycam footage reveals.
Why wasn’t Grayson’s bodycam activated?
Indeed, many questions are unanswered— and likely won’t be unless some truth is shined on this official darkness.
For my part, today I submitted my own Freedom of Information request to the sheriff’s department. At the end of the online form, they asked for a photo ID.
I declined.
Still, I urge the NABJ, as they celebrate their existence and push the next generation, to send a team from Chicago to Springfield. Show journalistic integrity, strength and excellence in an era of distrust, division and detraction.
Sonya Massey was unjustifiably killed. Let’s not be desensitized when any police officer exceeds their authority to protect and serve.
My freedom of information request asked for:
1– The initial police report of the encounter with deceased and Grayson. (Grayson’s family was first told that she had been killed by an intruder.)
2– For Grayson, any prior disciplinary or commendation reports.
3– Post-incident statements from sheriff’s office.
4– Racial composition of sworn sheriff deputies and other officials.
5– Demographic information on civilian and uniformed officers.
6– New training for officers, and other efforts for community engagement, sensitivity training,
Certainly, more probing questions loom. Like how could someone with two DUIs, with a bad conduct Army discharge, a man who worked for six law enforcement agencies in just four years, a deputy known for disobedience to superior officers — how could this be so egregiously missed and Grayson still hired?
The sad truth is we all could wind up as Sonya Massey. One answer is to have journalistic watchdogs who can help get to the root of the problem — before there is another corpse in the kitchen.
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