(PEORIA, Ill.) — The trial began on Wednesday of Sean Grayson, the former sheriff’s deputy, who was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the July 2024 fatal shooting of Sonya Massey, a Black woman who called 911 to report a possible intruder at her home in Springfield, Illinois.

Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Dawson Farley, who responded to Massey’s home along with Grayson, took to the witness stand on Wednesday afternoon and testified that Massey did not appear to be a “threat.”

“She never did anything that made me think she was a threat,” Dawson said. “It was essentially the defendants’ actions that raised my sense of awareness,” Farley said of Grayson.

During his testimony, Farley said that he wanted to “do right” by Massey by testifying for the prosecution in this c

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