Deputy who killed Sonya Massey was discharged from Army because of DUI, sources say

The former deputy charged with murder in the shooting death of Sonya Massey was discharged from the Army because of a drunk driving arrest in 2015, two sources told NBC News.

Why Sangamon County, Illinois, Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson was discharged is the latest revelation about his work history. Grayson was arrested on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct after he fatally shot Massey in the head in her home in Springfield on July 6.

Despite multiple documented issues with his policing ability, Grayson seemed to have little trouble repeatedly finding law enforcement employment. He worked for six law enforcement agencies in central Illinois in four years.

Before that, he was a private first class in the Army, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas.

Grayson enlisted in the Army in 2014. He had no deployments and left the Army with the rank of private first class in February 2016, an Army spokesperson said. 

It was during his enlistment that he was arrested in 2015 for driving under the influence of alcohol. According to a Macoupin County, Illinois, booking report, Grayson was also arrested on a charge of unlawful use of a weapon at that time. But he was never formally charged because he was a resident of Fort Riley in Kansas, which has an open-carry firearms law, Macoupin County State’s Attorney Jordan Garrison said Tuesday.

His Army discharge paperwork lists his reason for separation as “misconduct, (serious offense).”

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel information, said the Army was aware that officers said there was a gun in the center console of Grayson’s vehicle when he was pulled over for DUI in Macoupin County.

Grayson, who was fired as a Sangamon County deputy nearly two weeks after he killed Massey,has been jailed since he was arrested and has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Dan Fultz, would not comment Tuesday.

Grayson’s discharge from the Army, his 2015 arrest, another DUI arrest in the same county the next year and multipledocumented issues with his policing ability do not appear to have hindered his ability to find work in law enforcement. He has worked as a part-time officer at three small police departments in Illinois and full time at one police department and two sheriff’s offices since he was discharged from the Army. 

While he was working for the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, he was accused in separate complaints of leaving a woman feeling violated during her arrest and of harassing her fiancé during a jail visit after she filed a complaint against him, according to his personnel file. Both complaints are marked as “unfounded” in the file. He left the department in “good standing,” according to his records.

Grayson’s Logan County personnel file also shows he had been reprimanded over inaccuracies in his police reports, failure to follow orders from a senior leader and what his superiors had warned could be perceived as a lack of integrity, according to a disciplinary file.

In his job application for the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, where he worked from May 2022 to April 2023, he disclosed in answers to separate questions that he had abused alcohol in the Army and that he had been intoxicated “a lot” in his life. He also made the agency aware of his two DUI arrests and said his license had been suspended for DUI in 2016. Asked in the same document, an initial applicant interview, whether he had ever been involved with a handgun violation, he answered that he had had a handgun when he was arrested for DUI, without specifying when.

His military and work background has led Massey’s family and their attorney, Ben Crump,to question how he was allowed to work in law enforcement at all, much less at six agencies.

Massey’s father, James Wilburn, has demanded that Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell resign. A petition calling for Campbell’s ouster had more than 36,000 signatures Tuesday afternoon.

The sheriff’s office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

On Monday night, Campbell told people gathered at Union Baptist Church in Springfield that his office failed Massey.

“She called for help, and we failed her,” he said. “That’s all she did was call for help.”

But he said he will not resign.

“I cannot step down,” he said at the gathering organized by the Justice Department. “I will not abandon the sheriff’s office. I vow to listen and learn.”

The sheriff’s office said last week that Grayson “passed a drug test, criminal background check, and psychological evaluation and graduated from a 16-week training academy” before he began his job with the agency. He was also certified for hire by a merit commission that reviews applicants, Campbell said in a statement.

Grayson and another Sangamon County deputy, who has not been identified, responded to Massey’s home early July 6, after she called 911 to report a possible prowler. Grayson shot Massey in an exchange over a pot of water, authorities have said and body camera video shows.

A review of the investigation, including body camera video, did not find the use of deadly force “justified,” the Sangamon County state’s attorney has said.

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