Justice Department officials met with law enforcement and residents of Springfield, Ill., after the death of Sonya Massey, who was shot by a sheriff's deputy after calling 911 for help.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Anger just keeps rising in Springfield, Ill., as the community learns more about the killing of 36-year-old Sonya Massey. She called 911 for help, and she ended up dead, shot and killed in her home by a sheriff's deputy. Last night, the U.S. Justice Department hosted a listening session at a church near the site of Massey's funeral with the goal of helping heal the community. WBEZ's Mawa Iqbal was at the church last night. Good morning, Mawa.
MAWA IQBAL, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: So I watched the video of this incident, and I can't get out of my head that moment the deputy points a gun at Massey as she ducks and says sorry, and then she gets shot. If you could just describe that listening session last night and what the Justice Department was hoping to accomplish.
IQBAL: Yeah. So that video was really at the core of how upset a lot of the community members were feeling last night. So the DOJ, which is also now looking into the circ*mstances surrounding Massey's death at the request of the family, was basically hoping to allow residents an opportunity to really say what they're feeling following her death and sort of what solutions they would like to see from county officials, from law enforcement, in regards to policing in Black communities. It's kind of a chance to get whatever they're feeling off their chest. So at the panel, there was the local sheriff, the police chief, council members, the mayor. And I would say there were about, like, 500 or so people packed into the gym of this church. So it was a pretty full crowd.
FADEL: So you mentioned that the sheriff was there. Massey's family, community leaders have been calling for the sheriff's resignation. Did that come up?
IQBAL: Yeah. Yeah, it did. And this was definitely at the point where things got pretty heated to where, you know, the session quickly devolved into a screaming match between moderators and residents, to where they had to cut the whole event 20 minutes short. So, a lot of people were really frustrated, including one resident, Zach Long (ph).
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ZACH LONG: (Yelling) All of these people up here is elected officials. (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Thank you.
(CHEERING)
LONG: (Yelling) Period.
IQBAL: Yeah. So a lot of people feel that Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell is responsible for hiring Sean Grayson, who was the white former deputy sheriff charged with murder in Massey's death, despite, you know, his previous DUI arrests and being discharged early from the Army.
FADEL: And what policing reforms were people calling for?
IQBAL: Yeah. So one reform that was brought up was around training. This is what resident Doris Daymon (ph) had to recommend.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DORIS DAYMON: I'd like to see courses, that they take courses that help them to understand multiracial, historical, you know, African American history.
IQBAL: Yeah, so in addition to seeing the training standards in general just being raised, people also wanted to see accountability for the, quote-unquote, "bad apple officers." So in the U.S., you know, there are about 1,800 different law enforcement agencies, and a lot of them are local. So one solution that people had was to create this sort of centralized system where departments, especially the smaller ones like you would see here in central Illinois, are fully aware of officers' records, their misconduct allegations and investigations before they apply to be officers.
FADEL: And I understand there's another event this evening in Chicago with the Reverend Al Sharpton and other religious leaders. Are some members of Massey's family expected to attend, and what is expected there?
IQBAL: Yeah, along with 700 people. So it's one of those where a lot of the pastors who are leading the rally have worked in civil rights for decades, and they just want to call to attention the systemic issues of, you know, where we're seeing a lot of these incidents happening, unfortunately, with unarmed Black people being brutalized and shot by white law enforcement officers.
FADEL: That's WBEZ's Mawa Iqbal. Thank you for joining us.
IQBAL: You're welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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