Illinois governor calls on Sangamon County sheriff to resign after Sonya Massey shooting
“We join the Massey family in calling for Sheriff Campbell’s resignation immediately so the Springfield and Sangamon County community can begin to rebuild and restore trust between citizens and the sheriff’s department,” Pritzker and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said in a joint statement.
On July 6, former deputy sheriff Sean Grayson responded to a report of a prowler at Massey’s home. Bodycam footage from another deputy showed Massey saying she rebuked Grayson, and the former deputy threatening the 36-year-old Blackwoman. The encounter ended with Grayson shooting Massey in the head and failing to render aid.
Grayson, a 30-year-old deputy who has since been fired, was indicted by a grand jury on July 17 on three counts of first-degree murder and one count each of aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in connection with the shooting. Grayson has entered a not guilty plea and was denied pretrial release, according to court records.
The sheriff’s office has come under scrutiny after it was disclosed that Grayson was discharged from the Army for serious misconduct and a history of driving under the influence yet still managed to get employed since 2020 by six Illinois law enforcement agencies – at three of them, as a part-time officer, employment records show.
“A full month has passed since the murder of Sonya Massey. In that time Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell has had ample opportunity to respond with conviction and purpose to questions about his hiring of the perpetrator, Deputy Sheriff Sean Grayson, and about reforms he would propose for his department to avoid this from happening again,” Pritzker and Stratton said.
“The community remains in fear that calling the Sheriff’s Office when they feel endangered will lead to another murder of an innocent resident,” Pritzker and Stratton said.
In a statement, Campbell said his office “continues to grieve for Sonya Massey and her family” and that deputies in his office “feel betrayed by one of their own.”
“The Sheriff’s Office is willing to modify our hiring practices in order to prevent an incident like this from occurring again. However, before changes can be made, it is important to identify the problem,” the statement said.
“Calls for my resignation are nothing more than political maneuvering during a tragic event and only hurt the good citizens of Sangamon County. I was overwhelmingly elected to lead the Sheriff’s Office through both good times and bad,” Campbell said.
Grayson’s attorney Daniel Fultz has declined comment.
The community organicibly requests for us to stand with them in calling for Sheriff Campbell's resignation, as the shooting incident and subsequent events have severely strained the trust between the community and the sheriff's department. Despite the incident, us as citizens continue to rely on the sheriff's office for protection, but the fear of another unfortunate event persists due to the actions of one of their own.
