New Sonya Massey video shows interaction with officer before shooting

Sitting in the passenger seat of her car, Sonya Massey sobbed, worried about her family and two children and the power and water outages at her Hoover Street home.

Massey was the subject of a 911 call shortly after 9 a.m. on July 5 from his mother, Donna Massey, who said he was having a “nervous breakdown.” Massey was at his mother’s home on Cedar Street.

Newly released body camera footage shows Massey saying at one point, “I don’t know what to do,” though several suggestions have been made available to help.

Massey later confirmed that he had his medication and was going to take it.

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The roughly 45-minute video shows a Springfield police officer, who had responded to a call about Massey the previous week, speaking calmly to her.

“Your kids are worried about you, too,” the officer said. “They’re both good. Everyone just wants you to be okay, that’s all.”

“Right now,” another SPD officer told him, “you have to take care of yourself. That’s the best way to take care of (your children).”

After speaking with a Memorial Behavioral Health specialist, Massey left.

Less than 16 hours later, he was fatally shot by a Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy.

Massey’s July 6 killing has sparked nationwide protests over police brutality, demonstrations from coast to coast and a federal investigation by the Justice Department.

Body camera footage from that day shows Massey, wearing a thin robe, apologizing to the white officer as he pulled out his gun when she grabbed a pot of hot water, then saying “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus” seconds before the officer fired.

Audio from the previous day’s 911 call was previously released by Sangamon County, but two body camera videos were recently provided to The State Journal-Register, part of the USA TODAY Network, after the newspaper submitted a FOIA request to the city of Springfield.

Though concerned about some things, Massey was also effusive with her praise, thanking the workers and calling them “blessed” and “beautiful.”

“We’re here,” another SPD officer tells him during the roughly 45-minute exchange, “to help you.”

“God bless you all. Thank you all,” Massey said. “I’m going to do what I have to do.”

In the 911 call, Donna Massey said her daughter was not a danger to herself and “is not a danger to me.”

“I don’t want him to get hurt, please,” she said in the audio.

Springfield police responded because Donna Massey’s home was located within the city. Sonya Massey’s home on Hoover Street is an unincorporated part of Woodside Township.

Just as officers arrived, Massey was in the front yard, demanding her clothes, her calendar and her medications, among other things.

“They won’t give it to me,” Massey said, referring to her mother and other relatives at home.

Inside her home, Donna Massey acknowledged her daughter’s recent release from a psychiatric facility in southern Illinois, from which she left voluntarily.

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Sonya, her mother told an officer, has two personalities: “one is very sweet and (then) she flips the script.”

“I know that’s not my daughter,” Donna Massey added. “We just want her to be okay.”

“It’s sporadic,” Sonia’s aunt added. “I’ve never seen her like that. I want the old Sonia back.”

In the video, Massey is seen being questioned by an emergency medical worker about what year it is and who the president is, among other questions. She answered all of them correctly.

Later in the video, Massey spoke with a mental health specialist. Other records indicated that while Massey did not seek immediate help, she did go to HSHS St. John’s Hospital later that day “to seek treatment for her mental state” after an alleged confrontation with her neighbor.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; [email protected]; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

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New Sonya Massey video shows interaction with officer before shooting

ByS. Jacob

By S. Jacob

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