SPRINGFIELD (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - There was a community meeting Monday night in Springfield following the filing of murder charges against the sheriff’s deputy who shot Sonya Massey.
“We failed. We did not do our jobs,” said Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell. He told the crowd of around 300 people at Union Baptist Church. “I ask your forgiveness.”
He added that Massey called for help and his department failed her. But, he said he has no intentions to resign. Some have demanded that for hiring the deputy involved, Sean Grayson.
“That would solve nothing, the incident would remain,” Campbell said. “I vow to listen and learn.
Campbell spoke as part of a listening session put on at a Springfield church by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Springfield NAACP.
Grayson, since fired, jailed, and indicted for murder, shot Massey in the face as she was moving a pot of hot water. Grayson and another deputy responded to Massey’s 911 call about a possible prowler July 6.
The listening session devolved into chaos after about an hour and a half. Shortly before the event ended, one man called out the pastor of the church hosting the session, saying his church has done nothing for Black people.
The union representing sheriff’s deputies says Grayson was “terminated without just cause” and he should be reinstated.
Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher said she’s pro-union “but that union I would not agree with.”
The Massey family and their attorney, noted civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, are scheduled to hold a news conference and rally Tuesday evening in Chicago to respond to a police labor organization’s call for Grayson to be reinstated with back pay. Rev. Al Sharpton is also scheduled to attend.
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