--- description: The fatal police shootings of two black Americans, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, left Shonda Rhimes grappling with how to respond title: Shonda Rhimes Is ‘Too Sad’ to Write a Furious Tweet About This Week’s Shootings image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fdfcca84c241297/69889b0aa988ca59606b8889/shonda-rhimes-respond-shooting-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Shonda Rhimes Is ‘Too Sad’ to Write a Furious Tweet About This Week’s Shootings  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 7, 2016 7:11 PM CUT  Producer Shonda Rhimes on May 22, 2016 in New York City. Producer Shonda Rhimes on May 22, 2016 in New York City.Bryan Bedder—Getty Images for Vulture Festiva  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 7, 2016 7:11 PM CUT The fatal police shootings of two African-Americans, [Philando Castile](http://time.com/4396220/philando-castile-minnesota-shooting/?xid=homepage "undefined") and [Alton Sterling](http://time.com/4395459/alton-sterling-baton-rouge-police-shooting/ "undefined"), left television writer and producer Shonda Rhimes grappling with how to respond. Rhimes tweeted Thursday that she had written and deleted at least 20 messages because she was too sad to express fury. So the television powerhouse, who is known to write verbose and emotional speech for her characters, said she would express herself with simply with the hashtag #stopshootingus. She joined a growing outcry from prominent [voices](http://time.com/4396285/drake-respond-alton-sterling/ "undefined") about the two deaths from police shootings since Tuesday, including [messages from](http://time.com/4395298/jesse-williams-alton-sterling/ "undefined") _Grey’s Anatomy_ star Jesse Williams. Read her tweet in full below: > [](https://twitter.com/shondarhimes/status/751113975018901505) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4397095/shonda-rhimes-minnesota-police-shootings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4397095/shonda-rhimes-minnesota-police-shootings/"},"headline":"Shonda Rhimes Is ‘Too Sad’ to Write a Furious Tweet About This Week’s Shootings","datePublished":"2016-07-07T19:11:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:07:07.277Z","description":"The writer and producer responded to the deaths Thursday on Twitter","url":"https://time.com/4397095/shonda-rhimes-minnesota-police-shootings/","keywords":["Television","Internet","celebrities","Technology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fdfcca84c241297/69889b0aa988ca59606b8889/shonda-rhimes-respond-shooting-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fdfcca84c241297/69889b0aa988ca59606b8889/shonda-rhimes-respond-shooting-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"shonda rhimes respond shooting twitter","caption":"shonda rhimes respond shooting twitter","creditText":"Bryan Bedder—Getty Images for Vulture Festiva","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4397095/shonda-rhimes-minnesota-police-shootings/","name":"Shonda Rhimes Is ‘Too Sad’ to Write a Furious Tweet About This Week’s Shootings"}}]}] ```