To her 17-year-old son, Sonya Massey was a “superhero.”
“She was a loving person,” Malachi Hill Massey said. “I don’t know how she does it, but she was just a ball of love. She was the best person on the planet to me.”
His earliest memories with his mother revolved around reading the Bible and exploring their Christian faith, he said. Along with being a great cook and an outgoing woman who could talk “to anybody,” Malachi said his mother was an outspoken Christian who was devoted to her children.
Massey, 36, was deeply spiritual, spending her days praying, caring for her children, cooking and spending time with family, her uncle Raymond Massey told NBC News in an interview. Raymond said that he and Massey were very close, that she would call him often and that she had texted him, “I love you, uncle,” on the day she was killed.
“She was so caring. She was always happy. She had a great spirit,” Raymond, 64, said. “Every time she had an accomplishment, or her kids had an accomplishment, she would call me. She’d be so proud. She was a great soul.”
Massey was fatally shot on July 6 at her home in Springfield, Illinois, after calling police because she thought there was an intruder in the house. No evidence of an intruder has been made public. Two Sangamon County sheriff’s deputies responded, and the interaction was caught on one of their body cameras.
“There is no reason this should have happened at all. I keep on asking myself how, how did this happen? There’s no reason it should’ve happened,” Malachi said. “She was my whole heart.”
Raymond said Massey’s ambitions largely surrounded her children. Even though she was retired from a local gaming company, according to her obituary, Raymond watched Massey work part-time jobs to surprise her son with a car, he said.
“She did a lot of things like that for her kids,” Raymond said. “She focused on God and loving her kids. They were always well dressed and well mannered. That was one of her focuses. She was striving to be all she could be, and she wanted that for her kids.”
In the police bodycam footage, Massey is shown turning off a burner on her stove and picking up a pot of water from it with both hands, after one of the officers told her, “We don’t need a fire while we’re here.” The three are heard laughing about it before Massey says, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” a religious saying often used casually to ward off danger.
Deputy Sean Grayson is then heard yelling, “You better not!” before firing at Massey. She died at a hospital from a gunshot wound to the head. Grayson, whose body camera was off during the interaction, was fired by the department and indicted on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. He has pleaded not guilty. The other officer has not been publicly identified.
Now, as Massey’s death sparks protests and renews the national conversation about police violence, her family and friends are remembering her life and the ways she spread love and joy.
“That’s my mother,” Malachi said. “But even if that wasn’t my mother and I knew her, that probably would still be the best person on the planet to me. That was my superhero.”
Massey struggled with mental illness and had been seeking treatment in the weeks before her death. She’d briefly checked herself into an inpatient treatment program and called a mobile crisis line three times in the weeks before her death, according to NBC Chicago, citing dispatch records. On July 5, one day before Massey was shot, her mother called police and told a dispatcher her daughter was having a mental breakdown but was not dangerous, saying, “She’s been sporadic and I don’t want you guys to hurt her, please.”
Marc Ayers, a member of the Sangamon County Board, told WMAQ that Massey’s death raises questions about the way law enforcement responds to incidents related to mental health issues.
“The deputy, the former deputy who responded, failed her. And failed her miserably,” Ayers said. “There’s just so many questions to be answered about how this could’ve happened in the first place.”
Malachi said Massey sent him and his sister, Jeanette “Summer” Massey, who is 15, to live with their respective fathers as she sought mental health treatment, according to The Associated Press.
Massey had many talents, according to her family, including doing hair. Amid tears and wailing at Massey’s funeral on July 19, one of Massey’s cousins laughed about her exuberant personality and her knack for cooking.
“I’ve been a vegetarian for 25 years, and I still miss her shredded chicken nachos,” one woman who described herself as Massey’s first cousin said during the funeral. “Sonya was really talented.”
She added of Massey’s ambitious personality, “She would say she wants something, she would go after it.”
In the weeks since the killing, Massey’s family and friends have held rallies and vigils that have been attended by activists and relatives of other Black people killed by police.
Doris Turner, a state senator from Springfield, told WBEZ radio of Chicago that she, Massey and Massey’s mother, Donna, were talking on Turner’s porch just one week before Massey’s death.
Turner said she was “devastated” when she learned that Massey, whom she had known since Massey was a child, had died.
“Sonya was a very petite woman, quiet, soft-spoken you know, just very, very friendly. Not combative at all,” Turner said. “When her cousin called me early that morning to tell me what happened. I … just couldn’t believe it.”
Raymond said he held a gathering at his home for the family in the weeks after Massey’s death, allowing everyone to grieve together. It was a healing reunion for the family, Raymond said, but Massey’s mother and children are still struggling.
“Summer misses her mom dearly, she loved her very much,” Raymond said. As for Massey’s mother, Donna, “She’s not sleeping well,” Raymond said, adding that she lives with the fear that Grayson won’t be imprisoned for Massey’s death.
“Sonya was not an angry person,” Raymond said. “She was a loving, caring person, and she should be here today.”
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