Listen, everything about the killing of Sonya Massey by now-former Illinois deputy Sean Grayson is infuriating. But the fury spawned by the police body-cam footage that shows definitively that Grayson had absolutely no reason to pull his gun, let alone shoot Massy, aside, we should also be outraged at the evidence that indicates Grayson should never have been called to Massey’s home in the first place—because he shouldn’t have been a cop anymore even before that night.
Source: Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department / Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department
According to SCRIPPS News, Grayson, who is currently being held without bail on multiple charges including three counts of First Degree Murder, had been employed by six different police agencies since 2020, and the only one he didn’t leave, for whatever reason, in less than a year was the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, which is where he worked when he gunned Massey down just for lifting up the pot of boiling water he and his partner sent her to dispose of.
From SCRIPPS:
The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board shows Grayson was hired part-time on Aug. 11, 2020, by the Pawnee Police Department. He also was hired part-time on Feb. 4, 2021, by the Kincaid Police Department and on May 20, 2021, by the Virden Police Department.
Two months later, he was hired full-time by the Auburn Police Department and remained there until May 1, 2022, when he was hired full-time by the Logan County Sheriff’s Office. Grayson left Logan County on April 28, 2023, and was hired full-time on May 1, 2023, by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office.
He received his part-time Law Enforcement Certification on June 5, 2021, according to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. His certification status currently reads as suspended on the board’s website.
The reason why Grayson had been playing police department musical chairs for four years before finding the sheriff’s office he got fired from for shooting Massey for no discernable reason is unclear, but what is abundantly clear are all of the bright red flags that indicate the 30-year-old should not have been employed as an officer of the law in the first place, and certainly not six separate times.
Grayson was also an Army veteran, that is until he was discharged for “serious misconduct” in 2016. The reason for his dishonorable discharge is also unclear, but it might have had something to do with the two DUI convictions he has on his criminal record, one of which happened while he was still in the military.
In fact, according to USA Today, the sheriff’s office knew of Grayson’s DUIs, but, apparently, they weren’t enough—even coupled with Grayson’s shady work history—to cause someone in the sheriff’s department to think: “Hmmmm, maybe this isn’t the best guy to give a gun and a badge to.”
From USA Today:
A sheet in Sean P. Grayson’s personnel file, obtained by The State Journal-Register, part of the USA TODAY Network, through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, listed “misconduct (serious offense)” as his reason for separation from the Army on Feb. 27, 2016. An online record of the Aug. 10, 2015, DUI in Girard, Illinois, about 40 minutes southwest of Springfield, listed Grayson’s address as Fort Junction, Kansas.
Grayson’s former first sergeant, in writing a recommendation letter for him for the Auburn Police Department, noted that “aside from Mr. Grayson’s DUI, there were no other issues that he had during his tenure in the U.S. Army.”
Jeff Wilhite, a spokesman for Sangamon County, said the sheriff’s office knew about that DUI as well as his second, which also occurred in Girard on July 26, 2016, just under a year after his first DUI. Grayson pleaded guilty in both cases.
It’s easily arguable that Sonya Massey would still be alive if it wasn’t so easy to become a cop and stay a cop despite a cop having a record that suggests they shouldn’t be a cop. Massey’s death was preventable in more ways than one.
