Sheriff who hired deputy charged in Sonya Massey's killing was 'horrified' by the body camera video

(1 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Springfield, Illinois - 1 August 2024
1. Exterior of Sangamon County Sheriff Office
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Sheriff Jack Campbell, Sangamon County:
"I can't speculate what his thinking was. That is. That's the million dollar question. Why? Why did he do that? And, what he did, had no indicators in his past. He had plenty of training to know better. He was trained in mental health crisis and crisis intervention. And, for all our knowledge, we had he had handled these calls in the past. We had no complaints on him on the use of force. We do not understand why he snapped. He acted outside the scope of his authority as a police officer. Outside our policies and procedures and outside the law. It is something that we live with and try to figure out every day. We'll probably never know why he did that."
3. Slight zoom in of exterior of Sangamon County Sheriff Office
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sheriff Jack Campbell, Sangamon County:
"I am in as much shock as they are. There was nothing in Grayson's background that could have led us to believe that he would commit this violent act, and we handle thousands of calls every year without incident. We've had three officer involved shootings in the last 24 years. And so, my my message is that we're still the same sheriff's office. The person that did this is in jail. He's going to, face justice in the criminal justice system. And my job now is to to hire, people and train them to make sure this doesn't happen again."
5. Various of Springfield, Illinois streets with state capitol building in background
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Sheriff Jack Campbell, Sangamon County:
"When people see somebody wearing the same uniform, you know, commit this violent act that was against our policies and procedures in law. They put themselves in his shoes and they cannot figure out how this happened. They work with them side by side, every day, every shift. Nothing was reported to us that there was a problem. This was somebody that snapped. And I think when when you have somebody that's a friend and a coworker that snaps like that, that couldn't have been predicted. It's not like, you know, they could have come to us and said, you know, we think there's a problem here. You know, on on Friday night, he was fine and Saturday night he wasn't. So whatever happened, it's hard to predict. But the the guys there overall, they know it was a bad situation. He broke the law and they, they, they, they question themselves now about doing things right. And I've got to have them work in the street and staying safe. And that's my goal now moving forward, running this agency."
7. Exterior of Sangamon County Sheriff Office

STORYLINE:
The Illinois sheriff whose deputy shot Sonya Massey in her home after she called 911 for help says it will take the rest of his professional life to rebuild trust in his agency.

Sheriff Jack Campbell said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press that he was “horrified” by the body camera video that showed former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson shooting Massey.

“We do not understand why he snapped. He acted outside the scope of his authority as a police officer, outside our policies and procedures and outside the law,” Campbell said. “It is something that we live with and try to figure out every day. We’ll probably never know why he did that.”

It was the department's third officer-involved shooting in a quarter century.



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