Autopsy confirms Sonya Massey died from gunshot wound to head, as attorney calls shooting senseless

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Sonya Massey ducked and apologized to an Illinois sheriff’s deputy only seconds before he shot her three times in her home, with one fatal blow to the head, as seen in body camera video released Monday.

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CORRECTS TO PLEADED NOT GUILTY Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney representing the family of Sonya Massey, stands next to a diagram from the slain woman’s autopsy on Friday, June 26, 2024, in Springfield, Ill., and gestures to show the downward angle in which Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson shot Massey in the face early on July 6. Massey had called 911 with suspicions of a prowler near her Springfield home. Grayson has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges. (AP Photo/John O’Connor)

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This undated photo provided by the family’s lawyers in July 2024 shows Sonya Massey of Springfield, Ill. Prosecutors have charged Sangamon County Deputy Sean Grayson with murdering Massey while responding to an emergency call at her home July 6, 2024, saying in court records that he shot her in the face during a tense moment over a pot of water in her home. (Courtesy Ben Crump Law via AP)

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Malachi Hill Massey, 17, center, speaks at a news conference on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, at the NAACP headquarters in Springfield, Ill., about his mother, Sonya Massey, who was shot to death by a Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy on July 6 in Springfield after calling 911 for help. On the left is civil right attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Massey family. On the right is Sonya Massey’s daughter, Jeanette Summer Massey, 15. (AP Photo/John O’Connor)

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In this image taken from body camera video released by Illinois State Police on Monday, July 22, 2024, former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson, left, points his gun at Sonya Massey, who called 911 for help, before shooting and killing her inside her home in Springfield, Ill., July 6, 2024. (Illinois State Police via AP)

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In this image taken from body camera video released by Illinois State Police, Sonya Massey, left, talks with former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson outside her home in Springfield, Ill., July 6, 2024. Footage released Monday, July 22, by a prosecutor reveals a chaotic scene in which Massey, who called 911 for help, is shot in the face in her home by Grayson. (Illinois State Police via AP)

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James Wilburn, father of Sonya Massey, speaks to reporters in Springfield, Ill. on Monday, July 22, 2024. A former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy has been charged with murder after shooting Massey inside her home while responding to a 911 call on July 6. (AP Photo/John O’Connor)

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FILE - Sonya Massey’s home, the scene of her fatal shooting, stands Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Springfield, Ill. Prosecutors have charged a sheriff’s deputy with Massey’s murder. Sean Grayson is accused of shooting the Black woman in the face on July 6, 2024, while responding to her report of an intruder at her home. (AP Photo/John O’Connor, File)

By JOHN O’CONNOR and RICK CALLAHAN

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Autopsy findings released Friday on Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman fatally shot in her Illinois home by a now-fired sheriff’s deputy charged in her death, confirm that she died from a gunshot wound to the head.

The report was released shortly before civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Massey’s family, denounced the killing by ex-sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson as senseless, unnecessary and excessive.

Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon had previously disclosed initial findings on Massey’s July 6 death in Springfield and the full autopsy report released Friday confirmed those conclusions, including that her death was a homicide.

In addition to the bullet striking her just beneath her left eye, Massey had “minor blunt force injuries” to her right leg, the autopsy said.

Grayson, who is white, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct charges in Massey’s killing. He was fired last week by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office and has been jailed without bond.

Crump, at his third news conference this week since the body camera video was released Monday, used an enlarged diagram from the autopsy that showed the bullet exited on her lower neck in a downward trajectory. That, he said, emphasizes the physical mismatch between Massey and the much larger Grayson, who fired on her because he said he felt threatened by a pan of hot water she was moving from her stove.

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“When Sonya Massey was staring at the barrel of his gun, she stooped down, said, ‘Sorry, sir, Sorry,’ and the bullet was shot while she was in this stooped position, coming up,” Crump said. “The autopsy confirms what everybody already knows, that this was just a senseless, unnecessary, excessive use of force.”

Grayson is 6-foot-3 (191 centimeters) and 228 pounds (103 kilograms). The autopsy lists Massey at 5-foot-4 (163 centimeters) and 112 pounds (51 kilograms). Prosecutors have added that the distance between shooter and victim and a counter between them gave Grayson “distance and relative cover” from the hot water.

Authorities said Massey had called 911 to report a suspected prowler. Two deputies eventually showed up at her house in Springfield, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

The video confirmed prosecutors’ earlier account of the tense moment when Grayson yelled across a counter at Massey to set down a pot of hot water, aiming his 9mm pistol at her and threatening to shoot her in the face. He fired three times.

The unidentified deputy with Grayson then said he would get his medical kit, but Grayson said, “She done. You can go get it, but that’s a head shot. There’s nothing you can do, man.”

He later relented while the second deputy held towels to Massey’s head to try to stem the bleeding, but by the time Grayson returned with his kit, emergency medical professionals had arrived and when they told Grayson his help wasn’t needed, he threw his kit on the floor and said, “I’m not even gonna waste my med stuff then.”

Massey struggled with mental illness, according to her family. Her son, 17-year-old Malachi Hill Massey, said Friday that he and his 15-year-old sister had moved in with their fathers because Sonya Massey had admitted herself to a 30-day inpatient program in St. Louis sometime during the week before her death, but returned two days later without explanation.

Malachi Massey also said that on July 5, the day before the early morning shooting, law enforcement officers whom he thought were from Sangamon County were called to the house and were there when he arrived. By then, his mother had called him to say she was driving herself to a local hospital, apparently for mental health treatment. He said he doesn’t know who called police or what help she was seeking that day.

The Associated Press has asked local law enforcement agencies for records of the July 5 call.

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Callahan reported from Indianapolis.