Sonya Massey, woman killed in home by police, died by homicide with gunshot to head, autopsy shows

(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — Sonya Massey, the Illinois woman fatally shot by a deputy while responding to her 911 call, died by homicide due to a gunshot wound to her head, according to an autopsy report released Friday by the Sangamon County coroner.

Though the autopsy report did not state the manner of death, Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon confirmed it was homicide.

“The cause of death; gunshot wound of the head. The manner of death; Homicide,” Allmon told ABC News in a statement.

The bullet that killed Massey, 36, entered at the lower eyelid of her left eye and exited through the posterior left surface of her upper neck, according to the autopsy report.

Massey’s family held a press conference in Springfield, Illinois Friday after the autopsy report was released.

“Sonya meant the world to me. I loved her so much. This tragedy has been so much on my family. Her kids. Her daughter cannot sleep at night,” Shadia Massey, Sonya Massey’s cousin, said. “This is the hardest thing that we have ever been through as a Massey. It just breaks my heart that our family has to go through this.”

“She is the only family member that me and my wife was talking last night about. I’ve never once seen her angry or mad,” Raymond Massey, Sonya Massey’s uncle, said. “She was always full of love. And she loved her kids and God.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Massey’s family, said that the autopsy report is further evidence that the shooting was unjust.

“The autopsy confirmed what everybody already knew with the video,” Crump said at the press conference. “That this was just a senseless and unnecessary excessive use of force, completely unnecessary, certainly not justified.”

Sean Grayson, the former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy who shot Massey, was fired and charged with three counts of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in Massey’s death. He pleaded not guilty.

“The first night I don’t go to my mother’s house, this happens,” Malachi Massey, Sonya Massey’s son, said at the press conference. “How? Why? And I wonder if I was there if he would have did anything to me.”

Massey and a second, unnamed deputy responded to Massey’s 911 call reporting a possible intruder at her Springfield home on July 6.

Body camera footage released Monday shows Grayson, 30, yelling at Massey to put down a pot of boiling water.

The footage, reviewed by ABC News, shows Massey telling the two responding deputies, “Please, don’t hurt me,” once she answered their knocks on her door.

Grayson responded, “I don’t want to hurt you, you called us.”

Later in the video, while inside Massey’s home as she searches for her ID, Grayson points out a pot of boiling water on her stove and says, “We don’t need a fire while we’re in here.”

Massey then pours the water into the sink and tells the deputy, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

Grayson threatens to shoot her, according to the video, and Massey apologizes and ducks down behind a counter, covering her face with what appears to be a red oven mitt. She briefly rises, and Grayson shoots her three times in the face, the footage shows.

The footage is from the point of view of Grayson’s partner, because Grayson did not turn on his own body camera until after the shooting, according to court documents.

A review by Illinois State Police found Grayson was not justified in his use of deadly force.

Grayson was discharged from the U.S. Army for “misconduct (serious offense),” according to documents obtained by ABC News.

ABC News has also learned that Grayson was charged with two DUI offenses in Macoupin County, Illinois, in August 2015 and July 2016, according to court documents.

Grayson’s attorney, Dan Fultz, declined to comment.

The news of his discharge and DUI offenses come days after it was revealed through Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board records obtained by ABC News that Grayson worked for six law enforcement agencies over the last four years.

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