Sean Grayson, the former Illinois sheriff's deputy convicted of murdering Sonya Massey, has died in prison just six months into his 20-year sentence. He had been suffering from colon cancer, which he claimed had progressed to a terminal stage, though a review board had denied his request for compassionate release only last month. The case had drawn national attention as another example of a fatal police shooting of a black woman during what began as a routine welfare check.

Massey, 36, a single mother of two, called 911 in July 2024 believing a prowler was outside her Springfield home. After Grayson and a colleague found no intruder and entered to question her, Grayson drew his weapon over a pot of boiling water on the stove, threatened to shoot her, and then fired three times as she apologised and dropped to the floor, killing her with a shot to the head. He was convicted of second-degree murder in October 2025 and given the maximum sentence in January, and although his lawyers argued his cancer had spread to his liver and lungs, prosecutors successfully opposed his early release, arguing he already had cancer when he committed the killing.