36-YEAR-OLD SONYA MASSEY WAS KILLED BY POLICE OFFICER SEAN GRAYSON ON JULY 6, 2024. AT A PITTSBURGH RALLY FOR MASSEY, BALLOONS ARE PLACED ON THE CORNER OF CLIMAX STREET AND CURTAIN AVENUE IN BELTZHOOVER
Massey was killed, July 6, by a White police officer in Illinois
by Rob Taylor Jr.
Courier Staff Writer
Black women have had enough.
A Black woman calls the police on her own, looking for help, as there may be a prowler around her home.
And she’s the one who ends up dead.
It didn’t happen in Pittsburgh—it happened in Springfield, Illinois, in the early morning hours of July 6, to 36-year-old Sonya Massey. Sangamon County deputies responded to the call, including 30-year-old Sean Grayson. Once inside Massey’s home, Grayson ended up shooting and killing Massey, seemingly for no reason. Grayson tried to say he feared that she would use a pot of hot water on him, but Grayson’s boss was having no part of that explanation. Two officers were there, including Grayson, when the situation unfolded, and the other officer had no plans of firing his weapon towards an unarmed person, where there was no danger present.
“It is clear that the deputy did not act as trained or in accordance with our standards,” Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell said in a statement posted on the agency’s Facebook page. “With our badge we accept enormous responsibility, and if that responsibility is abused, there should be consequences.”
And even though it didn’t happen in Pittsburgh, Black women in the region were so appalled, that they held a rally for Sonya Massey in Beltzhoover, July 28. The rally was held at the FroGang Lot of Love, founded by Kelli Shakur.
“Before God gave me the vision to cultivate, nourish, protect and do the upkeep on this space, it (the lot on Climax Street and Curtain Avenue) was vacant, abandoned, used, abused, overlooked, left to be forgotten to fend on its own kinda space, kinda like a Black woman,” said Shakur, who founded the FroGang organization which aims to unify Black girls from all over Pittsburgh. “For decades, people walked past this vacant lot and didn’t acknowledge or even fathom how special this space was and what it could actually become if it was protected, nurtured and invested in, kinda like a Black woman. As we stand on what was once a vacant lot, we, too, get overlooked, overused but no more. We will use today as a new way of thinking, making our words become actions, as we stand in solidarity for our sister, Sonya Massey, and all of the other Black women and girls who have been left unprotected and disrespected.”
Activists across the U.S. declared Sunday, July 28, as a “National Day of Mourning for Sonya Massey.” The day was met with rallies in New York City, Pine Bluff, Ark., Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, and others.
BALLOONS ARE PLACED ON THE CORNER OF CLIMAX STREET AND CURTAIN AVENUE IN BELTZHOOVER.
Pittsburgh’s rally for Sonya Massey was filled with passion. Speakers did not hold back. They didn’t care that the temperature was nearly 90 degrees—they were already hot over what happened to Massey, who, by all accounts, should be alive today.
“I don’t see the outrage like it should be for Sonya, and that happens so often with Black women,” voiced Dena Young, one of the speakers. “…We are tired of coming out here in these streets and protesting and rallying for our protection…we show up for everyone, but who is showing up for us? Who is protecting us? Who is loving on us? Who is just giving us a phone call saying, ‘Hey sis, are you OK?'”
PEOPLE REMEMBER SONYA MASSEY, AT THE FROGANG LOT OF LOVE IN BELTZHOOVER, JULY 28. (PHOTOS BY ROB TAYLOR JR)
The officer who killed Massey was a White male who has had a checkered history as a police officer. He was immediately fired by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office following the shooting and is now charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. Grayson has pleaded not guilty.
Grayson, the officer in question, has worked for six police departments since 2000. He obtained the job with Sangamon County in 2023. Superiors with other departments have said that Grayson would brag about drug arrests, showed a propensity to falsify reports, and showed no respect for those above him.
“I don’t understand how you hire a volcano and don’t expect for it to erupt,” said an angry Springfield resident during a town hall meeting with local police, Sunday evening, July 28. Hundreds of community members were in attendance.
“We failed. We did not do our jobs,” Sheriff Campbell said in response to the crowd.
KELLI SHAKUR, FOUNDER OF THE FROGANG ORGANIZATION.
Other speakers at the Pittsburgh rally for Sonya Massey included, among others, Beulah Baptist Church Pastor Katrina Organ, Congresswoman Summer Lee, Terri Minor Spencer and Amanda Neatrour.
Right before she was shot, Massey told the officers, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.” To that, Pastor Organ told the crowd: “We who were raised in the church, or who have studied and believed in the Word of God, know that when these words are spoken in a voice or command of boldness, it is when we are facing or feeling the presence of wickedness.”
WOMEN OF ALL ETHNICITIES CAME OUT TO PITTSBURGH’S RALLY FOR SONYA MASSEY, JULY 28, IN BELTZHOOVER. (PHOTOS BY ROB TAYLOR JR.)
Pastor Organ continued: “I know this world can feel overwhelming, especially when we hear on a daily basis, tragedy, police violence, continuous mass shootings with no legislation or intervention in sight. But as people of God, even during what appears to be hopeless and demonic times, we must keep our focus on Jesus Christ and walk by faith, and not by sight.”
CONGRESSWOMAN SUMMER LEE
Congresswoman Lee, who spends her professional life trying to introduce and pass legislation to help those who may be overlooked or underappreciated, said that the overall “system” fails Black women.
“It’s time that we all come together and we decide that we’re done simply speaking names; that we decide that we’re done seeing sisters pour their hearts and their souls out,” Congresswoman Lee said. “I’m in a place where we should be able to get these things done…and I have colleagues on both sides of the aisle who will say and give lip service, but when it comes time to actually appropriating money or resources,” they don’t come through.
As for Neatrour, her testimony was direct and personal. She said that in June, she caught poison ivy, and went to a local urgent care center to get a shot for treatment. She said not only was she denied the shot, but when she wanted to call in a complaint to the office’s customer complaint line, she was threatened by employees that they would call the police on her.
AMANDA NEATROUR
And they did. Neatrour said she found herself surrounded by three officers within minutes, and her life briefly flashed in front of her eyes.
“I knew this could go very wrong,” Neatrour said. “And despite the fact that I knew I had truth and justice on my side, by the grace of God, it was the officers who were the ones who saw my humanity that day.”
Neatrour said that when the police are called, one never knows if one of those officers will have a mindset just like Sean Grayson, who pulled the trigger on the defenseless Black woman, Sonya Massey.
“Despite the fact that these individuals weaponized the police against me, I’m alive to still take care of my children, to still take care of my mother. My anxiety and blood pressure has been through the roof since that day.”
Neatrour added: “Black women, disabled Black women, disabled people deserve to not have who they are used as justification of violence against them.”
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