‘It should have never happened’: Nearly 100 attend NLV rally for Illinois woman killed by deputy
About 90 people gathered Sunday evening for a North Las Vegas rally on Sunday evening to bring attention to the death of Sonya Massey, a Black resident of Springfield, Illinois, who was shot and killed in her home by a sheriff’s deputy.
Minister Vance “Stretch” Sanders, who organized the event, spoke into a microphone at the rally beside a statue of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., at the intersection of Carey Avenue and the boulevard named after King.
Sanders said that North Las Vegas is one of some 50 U.S. cities planning similar tributes to Massey this week to discuss the circumstances of her death and strategize about how to meet race-based threats of violence in areas with mostly Black residents.
Massey, 36, had called the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department on July 6 asking for help and during a dispute over a boiling pan of water, Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson is alleged to have shot her in the head. He was fired from the sheriff’s department and since has pleaded not guilty to charges of first degree murder, battery with a firearm and official misconduct, according to The Associated Press.
Sanders, who heads the Stretch for Change Foundation, said Sunday’s gathering was part of a National Day of Mourning for Massey.
“Everybody, we all got to make a commitment,” Sanders said, standing next to a large painting of Massey at the rally. “And we’re going to do a bit more because I’m telling you, they are watching Las Vegas, and even though you don’t think it’s happened here, it is happening here and it can happen here.”
“That’s why it’s important to have 50 cities have these events so we can set a standard — it’s not going to be tolerated in Las Vegas. And if you do, we coming to see you,” Sanders said.
Rally attendees included members of the Nation of Islam, and the Hebrew Black Israelites. A woman sang the Black national anthem to the predominantly Black crowd while a small boy walked by and waved a red, black and green Pan-African flag.
Gene Collins, a former Nevada state assemblyman and one-time president of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP, delivered a message at the rally about nonviolent protesting and how he gained knowledge from civil rights icons such as Rosa Parks and Rev. Jesse Jackson.
“When I met the Reverend Jesse, we used to talk about the civil rights movement,” Collins said. “We used to talk about people being killed just for the color that you are.”
Violence against African-Americans continues to disrupt the process people use to lay the foundation for living normal lives, he said.
“I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, while we are on this side of the fence, do not quit fighting,” he said. “Don’t let nobody tell you that civil disobedience is wrong. Say civil disobedience is meant to disrupt the system.”
Fateen Seifullah, a Muslim imam with Masjid As-Sabur, the oldest mosque in Las Vegas, told the audience that in the Islamic faith, it is said that death is the best teacher, and so Massey is “leaving us with one final lesson,” which is that “the fight is not over, the struggle has to continue.”
Rally attendee, Johnae Harris, 15, said that Massey’s demise “was just wrong, and it fired up a lot of anger in the black community.”
“It should have never happened, and with this thing going on right now, it could kind of like open up people and help stop stuff going on like this,” Harris said. “Maybe help like police brutality and change the rules, especially the law and stuff. Maybe the next president could help hear us out.”
Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on Twitter.
