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Former Fairfax County Police Sgt. Wesley Shifflett was taken to the county jail on Feb. 28 after a judge ordered him to serve three years for recklessly handling a firearm during the fatal shooting of Timothy McCree Johnson outside Tysons Corner Center.

Fairfax County Circuit Judge Randy I. Bellows sentenced the 36-year-old former officer to five years in prison, with two years suspended, followed by five years of supervised probation. Gov. Glenn Youngkin later commuted the sentence.

Shifflett’s attorney, Caleb A. Kershner, said he planned to appeal.

The sentence came 737 days after Shifflett shot Johnson, an unarmed 37-year-old suspected of shoplifting, during a nighttime foot chase on Feb. 22, 2023.

“I recognize the jury’s finding that Sgt. Shifflett’s conduct at the time he shot Timothy Johnson showed a reckless disregard for human life,” Bellows told the courtroom.

Shifflett’s trial began Sept. 17, 2024. On Oct. 4, jurors acquitted him of involuntary manslaughter but convicted him of reckless handling of a firearm, a Class 6 felony. Bellows later denied a defense request to set aside the verdict.

Fatal pursuit outside Tysons Corner Center

The encounter began around 6:30 p.m. after loss-prevention officers reported a theft in progress. Police Chief Kevin Davis said officers approached the suspect, who then ran.

A police account released the following day said an officer saw Johnson leaving a store near a parking garage. An anti-theft alarm sounded as he fled.

Shifflett, a uniformed officer and seven-year department veteran, pursued Johnson with another officer, an eight-year veteran assigned to the Tysons Urban Team who was wearing plain clothes.

Body-camera footage released March 23, 2023, showed the officers chasing Johnson through a parking garage and into a dark wooded area near the mall. They ordered him to get on the ground before gunfire could be heard.

Both officers fired their weapons, and Johnson was struck once in the chest. As officers restrained him, Johnson said, “I’m not reaching for nothing. I have nothing. … I’m shot, man. Hurry.”

Johnson was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

Prosecutors argued that Shifflett behaved recklessly by following Johnson into the wooded area and firing twice without identifying a gun.

Kershner maintained that Shifflett feared for his life after seeing Johnson reach toward his waistband. During closing arguments, he described the shooting as a split-second decision and invoked the police expression, “Better to be judged by 12 than carried by six.”

Shifflett apologizes to Johnson’s family

Before he was sentenced, Shifflett briefly addressed Johnson’s relatives in the courtroom.

“I want to express my deepest and heartfelt condolences to the Johnson family,” he said. “I recognize the immense pain they’ve been experiencing over the last two years and the grief they face in losing a loved one. I’m very sorry for their loss.”

Melissa McCree said afterward that the sentence represented a victory, though one that could not return her son.

Johnson’s mother, Melissa Johnson, called the outcome historic and unprecedented but said she wished her son had lived to face any consequences for the alleged theft.

“Had he been found guilty for stealing some sunglasses, we would still be able to see him,” she said. “He could still be a father to his children.”

Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said accountability was necessary to rebuild public trust after such a tragedy.

“Trust in policing is essential to community safety,” Descano said. He added that declining to pursue accountability would make the work of officers dedicated to public safety more difficult.

Officer was fired after the shooting

Fairfax County police announced in March 2023 that Shifflett would be terminated and formally dismissed him on April 14. A subsequent county court filing described him as having been “unsatisfactorily separated from service” under county personnel regulations.

On Oct. 12, 2023, Descano announced that a special grand jury had indicted Shifflett on felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless discharge of a weapon.

The case marked only the second time in Fairfax County Police Department history that an officer faced criminal charges for fatally shooting someone while on duty.

The earlier case followed Officer Adam D. Torres’ 2013 shooting of unarmed John B. Geer. Torres was charged with second-degree murder, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and received a one-year sentence that included time already served. He was released June 29, 2016.