The family of Sonya Massey and officials from Sangamon county, Illinois, reached a settlement in which the Illinois county agreed to pay Massey’s family $10m.
The settlement comes nearly a year after Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman and mother of two, was shot and killed in her home by a sheriff’s deputy who was responding to her call for help.
The settlement will probably help avoid a lawsuit over the shooting by Sean Grayson, a former deputy. Grayson, 30, is charged with first-degree murder in Massey’s death.
Jack Campbell, a former Sangamon county sheriff, who hired Grayson, retired following the shooting. The county came to an agreement with the justice department to ensure they have the tools to adequately train its department in de-escalation techniques, dealing with mental health disabilities and non-discriminatory policing.
Following the shooting, a citizen’s commission in Sangamon county, called the Massey commission, was founded “to take action and make recommendations that expand safe and equitable access to services by addressing systemic racism and mistrust in law enforcement and other helping professions”, according to the commission’s website.
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