6 unanswered questions in the fatal shooting of a Springfield woman by local deputies
As funeral arrangements were announced for Sonya Massey for July 19, the Illinois State Police on Wednesday announced it would not immediately be releasing additional information on the shooting of the Springfield woman.
Massey, 36, was fatally shot by Sangamon County Sheriff's Deputies early Saturday morning at her home in the 2800 block of Hoover Avenue following a 911 call reporting an intruder.
Supporters of Massey will be staging a protest in front of the Sangamon County Building (Ninth Street side) at 9 a.m. Friday.
Sparking change: Organizer of protest for Sonya Massey also seeking answers
The investigation was turned over to the State Police on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Massey's family has retained civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump.
The Tallahassee, Florida-based Crump is no stranger to Springfield. In 2023, he filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Peggy Jill Finley and Peter Cadigan and their employer, LifeStar Ambulance, Inc., based in Centralia, Illinois, in the Earl Moore Jr. case.
Finley and Cadigan have been charged with first-degree murder.
Crump has represented families in several high-profile civil rights cases, including Trayvon Martin, who was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, in 2012, and Michael Brown, who was killed by a law enforcement officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.
“It is extremely hard to imagine," Crump said in a statement about the Massey case emailed to The State Journal-Register, "how a woman who calls the police out of fear of an intruder ends up shot in the head by the police at her own home. We demand that all body camera footage from this incident be released immediately so that Sonya’s family and the public can see what happened in those thirty deadly minutes.
"No family should have to endure the pain and suffering that Sonya’s loved ones are experiencing right now.”
In a press release Wednesday, it announced that body worn camera video and additional information related to the incident wasn't being released "in order to protect the integrity of the legal process and the right to a fair trial in the event charges are filed."?
Sangamon County spokesperson Jeff Wilhite confirmed Thursday that the two deputies who initially responded are on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
Six unanswered questions about the investigation
In the aftermath of the shooting, The State Journal-Register submitted a number of questions to Sangamon County and State Police that remain unanswered. Additional questions also have surfaced.
Was Massey struck by gunfire inside her home?
How many sheriff's deputies fired shots and approximately how many rounds?
Did the 911 call come from inside the home and did Massey place the call?
Was anyone else present before two sheriff's deputies arrived?
Were any other weapons found on the scene?
Did sheriff's deputies determine that Massey was the resident before or after shots were fired?
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; [email protected]; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: What we still don't know in fatal shooting of Illinois woman by deputies
