New body camera footage released by Illinois police shows officers shooting and killing an unarmed black woman in her home after she requested assistance regarding a potential intruder.
In the United States, where police shootings of minorities have become achingly common and politicised incidents, the killing has generated global anger, with President Joe Biden claiming that Sonya Massey “should be alive today.”
At a news conference Tuesday, high-profile civil rights attorney Ben Crump called the incident, in which one officer was charged with murder, as “senseless,” adding that the family says police initially attempted to downplay their involvement.
Massey, 36, called 911 to report a potential intruder at her home, and authorities responded after midnight on July 6, according to the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department.
The sheriff’s deputies then request that she check on a pot of boiling water on the stove, stating, “We don’t need a fire while we’re here.”
When one of the deputies takes a step back, Massey asks why, to which he laughs and says, “Away from your hot, steaming water.”
Holding the pot, Massey responds calmly, “Oh, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” causing a constable to say, “You best not. I swear to God, I’ll shoot you in the face.” He drew his handgun.
Massey apologises and crouches behind a counter while officers scream, “Drop the pot.” They then turn the corner of the counter and open fire.
Afterward, one of the cops stated that they were terrified of “taking boiling water to the head.”
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Officer Sean Grayson, who is white, has been fired and charged with murder, and Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell has issued a statement condemning his “unjustifiable and reckless decision.”
On Monday, Biden described Massey as “a beloved mother, friend, daughter, and young Black woman,” while Crump stated that Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to talk with Massey’s family.
“Equal justice is paramount,” Crump told a news conference on Tuesday, adding that state officials promised a “fair and transparent investigation.”
Crump said those promises came after the family alleged that the police initially tried to downplay their involvement in the shooting.
According to Crump, when the family arrived at the scene, the police told them, “we know she was having problems with her neighbor,” suggesting that the neighbor might have been responsible.
Police shootings and brutality—especially cases of white-on-Black violence in a country with a long history of discrimination—often provoke outrage and protests in the United States, along with defenses and pushback from staunch police supporters.
America’s decentralized policing system, where individual towns and counties manage their own law enforcement, lacks national training requirements, making reform extremely difficult.
Additionally, the United States has more guns than people, leading police to often train for violent encounters with the general public.