Former Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell says the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey could not have been predicted because the former sheriff’s deputy convicted of her murder went through extensive training to prevent such an incident.
In his first interview since the July 2024 shooting of Massey by then-deputy Sean Grayson, Campbell told WMAY’s Sam Madonia that a state board certified Grayson six times before he was hired by Sangamon County, followed by even more training including crisis intervention before he began his county duties.
“(Grayson) went through a part-time academy, and then he goes through a transition academy to work full-time,” Campbell said. “By law in Illinois if you go through those two, I could have put him on the street immediately. I didn’t. I sent him through another full-time police academy before we let him work the streets of Sangamon County. That’s more than double the amount of training that most full-time officers and deputies get.”
Campbell said Grayson’s actions on July 6, 2024 could not have been predicted because the former deputy had been trained on how to handle similar situations.
“Even Sean Grayson was crisis intervention trained,” Campbell said. “He should have recognized the mental health breakdown. But even at that, you couldn’t have predicted what he did. When I watched that video, I know for a fact that myself and 99.9 percent of the deputies would have just stepped back.”
Campbell said he was not ready to leave office when he announced his retirement about a month after Massey’s death, but he stepped away because the department could not function under the intense reaction, much of which was political, and he also could not put his family through the strain.
“You had to be there to understand the pressure we were feeling,” Campbell said. “None of us were sleeping. We literally couldn’t function. I would have fought this forever for the people of this county. I would have stayed there and suffered through it, but I could not put my family through this and we could not function.”
Campbell emphasized that Massey is the sole victim, and that he has met with her family to express his sorrow.
Listen To The Interview Here:
