A former Illinois deputy has been sentenced to 20 years for fatally shooting Sonya Massey, a Black woman who called 911 for help.
Sean Grayson, 31, was convicted in October of second-degree murder. Grayson, who is white, received the maximum possible sentence and has been in police custody since being charged in the killing.
Massey’s family members, who were sitting in the court, celebrated his sentence with a loud cheer: “Yes!” The judge admonished them.
Grayson apologized during the sentencing, saying he wished he could bring Massey back and spare her family the pain he caused.
“I made a lot of mistakes that night. There were points when I should’ve acted, and I didn’t. I froze,” he said. “I made terrible decisions that night. I’m sorry.”
At the same time, this was clearly a mental health issue. Cops just shouldn’t be sent alone to deal with those. They aren’t trained for it, and many aren’t trainable because it wasn’t part of the hiring criteria and they just don’t have the skills. We need an addition group trained for this that can better handle these things. That way no one has to die, and we don’t have to spend tons of taxpayer money because a cop was put in a position he was clearly unqualified for. Probably shouldn’t even have been a cop. But with high demand and low supply, they end up taking lots of people who should never be cops. Maybe this guy could have lead a happy and productive life as a plumber or something.
I’ve worked for several small cities that had specialist officers for mental health issues, and they really were excellent. If more cities spent 10% of that Swat money on mental health officers, they would significantly improve public safety.
This exactly. Sending cops alone to these calls is like using a hammer on a screw.
Agreed. Maybe if we had adequate affordable healthcare… Naww, more money for ICE and the military. Even under Democrat rule, all they do is stall and choke.