Before his policing career began with six jobs in four years — the first three of which were part time — 30-year-old Sean Grayson was convicted twice within a year of driving under the influence, which cost him his hitch in the military.

The convictions plus his previous employment record should have raised serious questions when the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department hired him in May 2023, law enforcement experts say.

Grayson, who has since been fired, is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in the death of Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman who had called 911 about a suspected prowler at her home in Springfield, 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. Grayson, who is white, has pleaded not guilty.

“Six jobs in four years should have raised a red flag. And you would ask why he wasn’t hired full time in any of those (part-time) jobs,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “Combined with a track record of DUIs, it would be enough to do further examination as to whether or not he would be a good fit.”

Grayson, who enlisted in the Army in 2014, was charged with DUI in Macoupin County, just south of Sangamon County, after traffic stops on Aug. 10, 2015, and again on July 26, 2016.

The first DUI led to his discharge from the military in February 2016 for “serious misconduct,” according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel information, adding that Grayson had an unregistered gun in his vehicle.

Macoupin County State’s Attorney Jordan Garrison confirmed that police found a gun in the center console, but Grayson did not face a weapons charge because he was a resident of Fort Riley, Kansas. Kansas has an open-carry firearms law.

Grayson received a general discharge under honorable conditions — rather than an honorable discharge — because he was charged by a civilian law enforcement agency and his military service otherwise was good.

His attorney, Daniel Fultz, declined to comment Monday.

A misdemeanor DUI charge doesn’t by law preclude someone from serving in law enforcement, said Sean Smoot, chairman of the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, but a hiring agency can certainly consider it.

“Some police departments would not have hired someone with one DUI,” Smoot said. “I am shocked an agency would hire someone with two DUIs, but multiple agencies apparently did.”

Massey’s father, James Wilburn, has demanded the resignation of Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell. “He does not intend to step down,” Campbell spokesman Jeff Wilhite said.

A statement from Campbell’s office indicated that the county merit commission and state law enforcement board recommended Grayson’s certification as an officer despite the DUIs, and he passed a drug test, criminal background check, psychological evaluation and 16-week academy course.

Body-worn camera video of the killing released last week has unnerved the capital city, where a 1908 race riot prompted the creation of the NAACP a year later.

“Black women are under attack,” said Teresa Haley, a consultant and founder of Visions 1908, a social and economic justice and education advocacy group. “As I watched the video, I thought, ‘This is not murder. This is an assassination.’”

In the video, Grayson and another officer search outside Massey’s house for a prowler before knocking on her front door. Several minutes pass before Massey answers, during which time Grayson makes a comment that she’s dead inside and calls impatiently for her.

When she does, Massey, who had suffered mental health issues, says, “Don’t hurt me,” acts confused and repeats, “Please, God.” Grayson responds in a condescending manner when asking if there’s anything else he can do for her. As he tries to get her name for a report, he enters the house.

“His conduct before, during and after suggests that this guy was a loose cannon, and that’s being polite,” said Kalfani Ture, a former police officer, now assistant professor of criminal justice at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, and an instructor in the New York Police Department’s academy.

Inside Massey’s home, video shows Grayson directing that a pan of water be removed from a flame on the stove. Massey appears to set it near the sink. After the two joke about Grayson moving away from her “hot, steaming water,” Massey inexplicably says, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

That prompts Grayson to pull his gun. Massey apologizes and ducks behind a counter, but when Grayson yells at her to drop the pot, she comes back up and appears to pick it up again. Grayson fires three times, striking her in the face. He then discourages his partner from getting his medical kit. After relenting and retrieving his own, he returns to find emergency medical providers on the scene, drops it on the floor and says he won’t “waste my med stuff.”

“That’s not characteristic of an officer. That is characteristic of someone who has a depraved indifference to human life,” Ture said. “And this incident is not an aberration. Someone like this is pretty consistent in in their display of this type of profile.”

Ture said Massey probably picked up the pot again because she had already put it down when Grayson told her to do so and was confused by his aggressive orders. He moved quickly to lethal force despite having cover from the threat — substantial distance from Massey and a counter separating them — and he had other options, including using a stun gun, chemical spray or easily overpowering the diminutive woman, Ture said.

Pulling his weapon escalated the incident, Wexler said.

“He should have slowed things down, communicate, have a plan B and know where the door is to get out of the house, not put himself in a position where he had no alternative but to use deadly force by standing still, pulling out his gun and barking orders,” Wexler said.

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Baldor reported from Washington, D.C.

The report was released shortly before civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Massey’s family, denounced the killing by ex-sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson as senseless, unnecessary and excessive.

Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon had previously disclosed initial findings on Massey’s July 6 death in Springfield and the full autopsy report released Friday confirmed those conclusions, including that her death was a homicide.

In addition to the bullet striking her just beneath her left eye, Massey had “minor blunt force injuries” to her right leg, the autopsy said.

Grayson, who is white, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct charges in Massey’s killing. He was fired last week by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office and has been jailed without bond.

Crump, at his third news conference this week since the body camera video was released Monday, used an enlarged diagram from the autopsy that showed the bullet exited on her lower neck in a downward trajectory. That, he said, emphasizes the physical mismatch between Massey and the much larger Grayson, who fired on her because he said he felt threatened by a pan of hot water she was moving from her stove.

“When Sonya Massey was staring at the barrel of his gun, she stooped down, said, ‘Sorry, sir, Sorry,’ and the bullet was shot while she was in this stooped position, coming up,” Crump said. “The autopsy confirms what everybody already knows, that this was just a senseless, unnecessary, excessive use of force.”

Grayson is 6-foot-3 (191 centimeters) and 228 pounds (103 kilograms). The autopsy lists Massey at 5-foot-4 (163 centimeters) and 112 pounds (51 kilograms). Prosecutors have added that the distance between shooter and victim and a counter between them gave Grayson “distance and relative cover” from the hot water.

Authorities said Massey had called 911 to report a suspected prowler. Two deputies eventually showed up at her house in Springfield, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

The video confirmed prosecutors’ earlier account of the tense moment when Grayson yelled across a counter at Massey to set down a pot of hot water, aiming his 9mm pistol at her and threatening to shoot her in the face. He fired three times.

The unidentified deputy with Grayson then said he would get his medical kit, but Grayson said, “She done. You can go get it, but that’s a head shot. There’s nothing you can do, man.”

He later relented while the second deputy held towels to Massey’s head to try to stem the bleeding, but by the time Grayson returned with his kit, emergency medical professionals had arrived and when they told Grayson his help wasn’t needed, he threw his kit on the floor and said, “I’m not even gonna waste my med stuff then.”

Massey struggled with mental illness, according to her family. Her son, 17-year-old Malachi Hill Massey, said Friday that he and his 15-year-old sister had moved in with their fathers because Sonya Massey had admitted herself to a 30-day inpatient program in St. Louis sometime during the week before her death, but returned two days later without explanation.

Malachi Massey also said that on July 5, the day before the early morning shooting, law enforcement officers whom he thought were from Sangamon County were called to the house and were there when he arrived. By then, his mother had called him to say she was driving herself to a local hospital, apparently for mental health treatment. He said he doesn’t know who called police or what help she was seeking that day.

The Associated Press has asked local law enforcement agencies for records of the July 5 call.

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Callahan reported from Indianapolis.

An Illinois grand jury indicted former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson, 30, who is white, last week. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct.

The video confirmed prosecutors’ earlier account of the tense moment when Grayson yelled from across a counter at Massey to set down a pot of hot water. He then threatened to shoot her, Massey ducked, briefly rose, and Grayson fired his pistol at her.

Authorities said Massey, 36, had called 911 earlier to report a suspected prowler. The video shows the two deputies responded just before 1 a.m. on July 6 at her home in Springfield, 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. They first walked around the house and found a black SUV with broken windows in the driveway.

It took Massey three minutes to open the door after the deputies knocked, and she immediately said, “Don’t hurt me.”

She seemed confused as they spoke at the door, and she repeated that she needed help, referenced God and told them she didn’t know who owned the car.

Inside the house, deputies seemed exasperated as she sat on her couch and went through her purse as they asked for identification to complete a report before leaving. Then Grayson pointed out a pot sitting on a flame on the stove.

“We don’t need a fire while we’re here,” he said.

Massey immediately got up and went to the stove, moving the pot near a sink. She and Grayson seemed to share a laugh over her pan of “steaming hot water” before she unexpectedly said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

“You better (expletive) not or I swear to God I’ll (expletive) shoot you in your (expletive) face.” He then pulled his 9mm pistol and demanded she drop the pot.

Massey said, “OK, I’m sorry.” In Grayson’s body camera footage, he pointed his weapon at her. She ducked and raised her hands.

Grayson was still in the living room, facing Massey and separated by a counter dividing the living room and kitchen. Prosecutors have said the separation allowed Grayson both “distance and relative cover” from Massey and the pot of hot water.

After Grayson shot her, Grayson discouraged his partner from grabbing a medical kit to save her.

“You can go get it, but that’s a headshot,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do, man.”

He added: “What else do we do? I’m not taking hot (expletive) boiling water to the (expletive) face.”

Noting that Massey was still breathing, he relented and said he would get his kit, too. The other deputy said, “We can at least try to stop the bleeding.”

Grayson told responding police, “She had boiling water and came at me, with boiling water. She said she was going to rebuke me in the name of Jesus and came at me with boiling water.”

During a Monday afternoon news conference, the family’s lawyer, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, called Grayson’s “revisionist” justification “disingenuous.”

“She needed a helping hand. She did not need a bullet to her face,” Crump said of Massey.

Asked why Massey told Grayson, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” Crump said she had undergone treatment for mental health issues. He noted that she invoked God’s name from the beginning of the encounter and asked for her Bible after the deputies stepped inside.

During Massey’s funeral on Friday, Crump said the video, which he and the family had already viewed, would “shock the conscience of America.”

Massey’s father, James Wilburn, demanded the county court system be completely open with its investigation and prosecution and transparent with the public.

“The only time I will see my baby again is when I leave this world,” Wilburn said. “And I don’t ever want anybody else in the United States to join this league.”

Grayson, who was fired last week, is being held in the Sangamon County Jail without bond. If convicted, he faces prison sentences of 45 years to life for murder, 6 to 30 years for battery and 2 to 5 years for misconduct.

His lawyer, Daniel Fultz, declined to comment Monday.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for Massey’s family “as they face this unthinkable and senseless loss.”

“When we call for help, all of us as Americans – regardless of who we are or where we live – should be able to do so without fearing for our lives,” Biden said. “Sonya’s death at the hands of a responding officer reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not.”

Massey’s death is the latest example of Black people killed in recent years by police in their homes.

In May, a Hispanic Florida sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Roger Fortson, when the Air Force senior airman opened the door of his home in Fort Walton Beach armed with a handgun pointed down. The deputy, Eddie Duran, was fired.

In 2019, a white Fort Worth, Texas, officer fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson through a rear window of her home after responding to a nonemergency call reporting that Jefferson’s front door was open. Aaron Dean, the former officer, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.

In 2018, a white Dallas police officer fatally shot Botham Jean, who was unarmed, after mistaking his apartment for her own. Amber Guyger, the former officer, was convicted of murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Crump has represented families in each case as part of his effort to force accountability for the killings of Black people at the hands of police. Crump also has represented relatives of Earl Moore, a Springfield man who died after he was strapped face down on a stretcher in December 2022. Two emergency medical professionals face murder charges in that case.

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AP writer Sophia Tareen contributed from Chicago.