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Fairfax County has agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle wrongful death claims brought by the mother of Timothy McCree Johnson, the unarmed man fatally shot by a former county police officer outside Tysons Corner Center in February 2023.
The agreement with Melissa Johnson would resolve her claims against former Fairfax County Police Department Sgt. Wesley Shifflett. Court documents show the settlement was reached Dec. 4, 2025.
Most of the money will be placed in savings accounts for Johnson’s three children, who can access the funds when they turn 18. The settlement also provides $440,000 for attorney’s fees.
A hearing to finalize the agreement was requested for Jan. 30 at 10 a.m. in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. If the court approves the settlement, Shifflett is expected to withdraw his Dec. 10 appeal challenging a lower court’s refusal to grant him qualified immunity.
“The case has been resolved and the appeal will be dismissed,” attorney Victor Glasberg, who represents Melissa Johnson, said. He declined to discuss the agreement further.
Fairfax County declined to comment, and Shifflett’s attorney did not respond to inquiries. A judge dismissed claims against other Fairfax County Police Department personnel in October, before the settlement was reached.
The lawsuit, filed in January 2025, is ending shortly after former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin granted Shifflett an absolute pardon on Jan. 15, two days before leaving office.
Youngkin had previously commuted the three-year prison sentence imposed after Shifflett was convicted in October 2024 of recklessly discharging a firearm in Johnson’s Feb. 22, 2023, shooting. Youngkin called the punishment disproportionate to the offense. A jury acquitted Shifflett of manslaughter.
The absolute pardon will erase the reckless-discharge conviction. It was the only absolute pardon Youngkin issued during his four years as governor.
Youngkin said the deadly force Shifflett used was lawful and consistent with police policy and training, pointing to an April 7, 2025, report by Fairfax County Independent Police Auditor Richard Schott.
Shifflett and Officer James Sadler opened fire while pursuing Johnson, a 37-year-old Maryland resident suspected of stealing two pairs of sunglasses from Nordstrom.
Body-camera footage played at Shifflett’s trial showed him ordering Johnson to get on the ground and firing two shots two seconds later. Shifflett then yelled, “Stop reaching,” and told other officers he had seen Johnson put a hand near his waistband.
Shifflett testified that his physical reactions were moving faster than he could express himself verbally. After the shooting, Johnson could be heard saying that he was not reaching and had nothing. Police later determined he was unarmed.
Schott concluded that Shifflett’s belief that Johnson might have been reaching for a weapon was “objectively reasonable at the time,” although it proved incorrect.
The auditor also noted that Police Chief Kevin Davis dismissed Shifflett because of inconsistent statements he gave investigators about the shooting, rather than because of his decision to fire.
Glasberg said the pardon did not affect the civil lawsuit because the settlement had been reached more than a month earlier. He sharply criticized Youngkin’s action, comparing it to President Donald Trump’s pardons of people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Melissa Johnson and Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, whose office prosecuted Shifflett, also condemned Youngkin’s earlier decision to commute the sentence.
At a March 3, 2025, news conference, Melissa Johnson said Youngkin’s intervention did not promote police or community safety and instead validated what she called Shifflett’s “rogue action.”
Schott declined to comment on the pardon and said he stood by his report.
That report recommended simplifying the police department’s use-of-force rules by eliminating language that distinguishes between fleeing felony and misdemeanor suspects. Schott also said the department was working with community organizations on a policy governing when officers should begin foot pursuits.
The department adopted a formal foot-pursuit policy on April 9, 2025, two days after the report’s release. The Fairfax County NAACP criticized the process, saying the final policy was issued without community consultation or the incorporation of public feedback.