Update: Family of Sonya Massey who was sh0t and k!lled by law enforcement agrees to $10M settlement

Officials in Sangamon County, Illinois, have agreed to a $10 million settlement with the family of Sonya Massey, a Black woman who was shot and killed by law enforcement in her home last year. The agreement was reached last week after mediation between lawyers representing both parties, according to a resolution posted by the Sangamon County Board.The settlement was unanimously approved by the county board on Tuesday evening, February 11. Massey, a 36-year-old mother of two, was killed July 6 after two Sangamon County sheriffs deputies responded to her 911 call about a possible prowler at her home. She was shot and killed following a dispute with one of the responding deputies involving a pot of boiling water in her kitchen, body camera footage showed. Masseys family has said she struggled with mental health issues, and dispatch records showed the sheriffs department had been told she was experiencing a mental health crisis.One of the deputies, Sean Grayson, was fired and remains jailed on a first-degree murder charge. He has pleaded not guilty.Masseys death has led to renewed calls for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would set up a national database for tracking officers disciplinary issues or criminal offenses. Last month, the US Department of Justice announced a deal with the Sangamon County Sheriffs Office in response to an inquiry into violations of federal anti-discrimination law in Masseys shooting death. The deal would involve a series of remedies, including more training and use-of-force data reporting, so that policing activities would be carried out in a nondiscriminatory manner.The post Update: Family of Sonya Massey who was sh0t and k!lled by law enforcement agrees to $10M settlement appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.