CHICAGO (AP) — Sean Grayson, a former Illinois sheriff’s deputy whose fatal shooting of Sonya Massey inside her home became a flashpoint over police use of force, died Sunday while serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Grayson’s attorney, Daniel Fultz, confirmed that his client died earlier Sunday but declined to provide any further details.
Grayson, 32, was convicted of second-degree murder in October in the fatal shooting of Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman who had reported a possible prowler outside her Springfield-area home. Body camera video of the July 2024 encounter showed Massey crouching in her kitchen and apologizing moments before Grayson shot her in the face.
He was sentenced in January to the maximum 20 years in prison.
Grayson had been diagnosed with colon cancer before Massey’s killing, and his attorneys said at his sentencing that the disease had spread to his liver and lungs. In May, only months into his sentence, he sought medical release under an Illinois law for prisoners with terminal illnesses or serious medical conditions. The Illinois Prisoner Review Board denied his request last month.
Massey called 911 early on July 6, 2024, to report someone prowling outside her home. Grayson and another Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy responded.
Video showed Grayson directing Massey to remove a pot of hot water from the stove. As she held the pot, Massey told the deputies, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
Grayson threatened to shoot her, drew his handgun and ordered her to drop the pot. Massey apologized and ducked behind a kitchen counter before Grayson fired three times.
The other deputy, Dawson Farley, later testified that he did not consider Massey a threat and drew his own weapon only after Grayson did.
Grayson was fired after the shooting and charged with first-degree murder. Jurors convicted him of the lesser charge of second-degree murder after Grayson argued that he feared Massey would throw the hot water at him.
Massey’s killing drew national attention and protests and raised questions about how Grayson had moved through several law enforcement agencies before being hired by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office.
Illinois lawmakers later passed the Sonya Massey Act, requiring law enforcement agencies to more closely review an applicant’s previous employment records before hiring an officer.
The Justice Department also opened a civil rights investigation after Massey’s death and later reached an agreement with Sangamon County, its sheriff’s office and other agencies requiring changes to policing and emergency response. Those changes included additional training for interactions with people with behavioral health disabilities and development of a mobile crisis response program.
FILE - In this image taken from body camera video released by Illinois State Police on July 22, 2024, former Sangamon County Sheriff's Deputy Sean Grayson, left, points his gun at Sonya Massey, who called 911 for help, before shooting and killing her inside her home in Springfield, Ill., July 6, 2024. (Illinois State Police via AP, File)
FILE - This booking photo provided by the Macon County, Ill., Jail in January 2025, shows Sean Grayson, a former Sangamon County Sheriff's deputy who is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Sonya Massey on July 6, 2024, in Springfield, Ill. (Macon County Jail via AP, File)
CHICLAYO, Peru (AP) — Pope Leo XIV returned Friday to his beloved former diocese of Chiclayo and said it was a “joy” to be home, an emotional homecoming that underscored his love for his Peruvian flock and their pride that their shepherd now runs the Catholic Church.
The pontiff, known here as “Padre Roberto,” arrived at Chiclayo’s airport on the Pacific coast and immediately headed to a vast, dusty field outside Chiclayo for his first Mass on Peruvian soil. The Vatican estimated 1 million people had lined his motorcade route to the Mass and that 500,000 attended.
They cheered wildly when Leo arrived and looped through the crowd in his popemobile, under a scorching sun and temperatures of 31 C (88 F).
“What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo!” Leo said at the start of his homily. “It is a blessing for me to be with you once again,” he said, thanking the faithful especially for their prayers during his recent hospitalization for lung cancer. He declared that “with God’s help, I am overcoming” the health scare.
Chiclayo, population 700,000, is the commercial hub of Peru’s northern Pacific coast. But much of the world heard about it on the night of Leo’s election, May 8, 2025, when he gave Chiclayo a shoutout, in Spanish, from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.
And on Friday, Chiclayo welcomed its former shepherd home.
"I’m elated. He has decided to return to Chiclayo and we have him here, with us -- home,” said Julie Albujar, who woke before dawn with her sister to travel to the Mass site, where they were tasked with taking the collection. “This is a party and it’s a sign of our faith and our love for the pope.”
The former Robert Prevost spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru and credits the place and its people with teaching him how to be a shepherd. Pope Francis sent the Chicago-born Augustinian to take over as bishop of Chiclayo in 2014 and he stayed until Francis summoned him to Rome in 2023 to run the Vatican's bishops' office.
In hindsight, the 2023 transfer to Rome signaled that Francis saw in Prevost a potential successor, since the job is one of the most important in the church and would give Prevost the Vatican experience that many consider necessary to be a viable contender for the papacy.
But Prevost's heart is in Chiclayo, where he remains beloved for championing social justice issues and for his closeness to the people, especially poor people, during times of crisis. And he had quite a few during his tenure: COVID-19, devastating floods, and a surge of Venezuelan migrants as the humanitarian situation worsened there in 2018.
“I’m so glad he’s returning,” said Rolando Antonio Mendoza, who was selling posters bearing the pope’s image in front of the cathedral where Leo used to celebrate Mass. “Even though he’s now Pope Leo XIV, he hasn’t forgotten about his homeland.”
Nearby, the El Trebol restaurant proudly calls itself the restaurant of the pope and his image is displayed in framed photos of Prevost riding a horse, wading through the mud in rubber boots and celebrating his birthday with a cake.
A sign on his favorite table — No. 3 — with a view of the cathedral reads: “mesa bendita” – Spanish for blessed table. Like many other places around the city, the restaurant sells “Papaletas” or “Pop(e)sicles" with Leo's image in white chocolate.
Just a few steps from the restaurant, a life-size cardboard cutout of the pope now welcomes visitors to his former residence at the diocese, where an exhibit displays the amaranth purple, scarlet and white zucchettos, or skullcaps, that he wore as bishop, cardinal and now pope.
“I feel so happy about my work because the pope is Chiclayano,” said Cynthia Charrary, who was sweeping the streets near the city’s main square ahead of Leo’s arrival. “We want our city to be cleaner than ever.”
Ever since Leo touched down on Peruvian soil on Wednesday, the world has seen a very different pope.
Normally reserved and placid, the 71-year-old Leo has seemed at turns positively giddy and overwhelmed with emotion to the point of tears.
That was certainly the case on Thursday night when some 60,000 young Peruvians sang for him in the Lima stadium. It was also the case when he sang the national anthem at the presidential palace upon his arrival on Wednesday.
Leo has also sung along with popular songs and hymns, tapping his fingers to the beat on an armchair.
On other occasions, he has shown himself so relaxed and comfortable as to joke about his health. Speaking to Peruvian bishops, he joked about how some “doubting Thomases” didn’t think he’d make it because of his recent lung cancer surgery.
After the Mass, Leo's other main events of the day include a meeting with Chiclayo clergy and seminarians and a speech to the Catholic university where he served as chancellor during his years as bishop. The university is named for the 16th-century first archbishop of Lima, St. Turibius de Mogrovejo.
Leo is particularly devoted to Mogrovejo and in many ways modeled his ministry on his.
Mogrovejo is revered for having traveled long distances on horseback to be with his flock and for having defended the rights of Indigenous and enslaved peoples. He studied Quechua and Aymara and oversaw the printing of church teaching in these Indigenous languages, because he believed the faith had to be transmitted in a language people could understand.
The Rev. John Lydon, an Augustinian who lived with Leo in Peru for over 10 years, says his commitment to Peruvians, human rights and involving the lay faithful in the running of church initiatives was born during his stints first as a young missionary priest in Chulucanas, then Trujillo and finally as bishop in Chiclayo.
Lydon recalled that Leo first arrived in Peru in the mid-1980s and saw the period of the Shining Path terror campaign and the later crackdown by the authoritarian Fujimori regime. In the late 1990s, then-Rev. Prevost led a campaign to collect signatures to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“These are the kind of things that just mark his identity,” Lydon recalled.
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Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese contributed to this report from Lima.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Pope Leo XIV presides over Mass at an open space near the Pampas de Pimentel in Pimentel, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass at an open space near the Pampas de Pimentel in Pimentel, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass at an open space near the Pampas de Pimentel in Pimentel, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
The faithful await a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV after spending the night at Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Nuns prepare ciboria containing Communion wafers ahead of a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The faithful await a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV after spending the night at Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The faithful hold letters spelling the Spanish word for "Welcome" ahead of a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A cutout of Pope Leo XIV is displayed outside a restaurant in Chiclayo, Peru, where the pontiff served as bishop, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
People take a selfie with a sign of Pope Leo XIV in Chiclayo, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Faithful cheer during a prayer vigil led by Pope Leo XIV at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV leaves at the end of a prayer vigil at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV catches a stuffed lion as he arrives to lead a prayer vigil at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
