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Contains distressing content.
Sonya Massey, a beloved mother, friend, daughter, and young Black woman, should be alive today.
The 36-year-old mum of two woke to noises near her residence in Springfield, Illinois, on July 6. She called 911 for help, believing there were prowlers or intruders nearby.
Around midnight, two County sheriff deputies responded to the call. They arrived at her residence, searched the area and then knocked on Sonya's door to speak with her. Officers followed her inside her home, and watched as she searched for her identification.
Body cam footage captured from the encounter shows us exactly what happened next.
As Sonya appears to be having difficulty answering the police officers' questions, they ask her, "Are you doing alright mentally?"
She replies: "Yes, I took my medicine."
According to reports, Sonya had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Court documents confirmed that Sonya was "calm, possibly unwell, and non-aggressive" on the night in question.
As shown in the footage, one of the officers — deputy Sean Grayson — sees a pot sitting on a lit stove in Sonya's home, and gestures towards it saying: "We don't need a fire while we're here."
He instructs Sonya to remove the pot of boiling water from the stove. She walks into the kitchen and begins to remove it, planning to pour the water down the sink. The officers then back away. At the point where Sonya was moving towards the sink to pour the boiling water into, she would have been over a metre away from the officers.
In the video, Sonya asks the officers: "Where you going?" To which Grayson replies: "Away from your hot steaming water."
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