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Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano sharply criticized Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Monday after the governor commuted former police Sgt. Wesley Shifflett’s prison sentence just two days after it was imposed.

Shifflett had been sentenced Friday, Feb. 28, to three years in state prison for recklessly handling a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting of Timothy McCree Johnson outside Tysons Corner Center in February 2023.

Speaking outside the Fairfax County Courthouse, Descano accused Youngkin of intervening for political reasons and disregarding the facts and legal process.

“For political reasons, Glenn Youngkin stuck his face in where it didn’t belong,” Descano said. “If you care about having a fair justice system in Virginia that’s untainted by outside influence, Glenn Youngkin just spit in your face.”

Johnson, a D.C. resident, had been accused of stealing two pairs of sunglasses from Nordstrom before Shifflett and another officer pursued him into woods near the mall. After Johnson allegedly reached toward his waistband, Shifflett fired his service weapon. Johnson was struck in the chest and later died.

A jury in October acquitted Shifflett of involuntary manslaughter, an offense carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years. Jurors instead convicted him of reckless discharge of a firearm over his decision to shoot in the frequently populated area surrounding the mall.

Youngkin announced the commutation Sunday, calling the sentence “unjust” and saying it “violates the cornerstone of our justice system.” He noted that the judge had rejected a senior probation and parole officer’s recommendation of no incarceration or supervised probation.

“Sgt. Shifflett has no prior criminal record, and was, by all accounts, an exemplary police officer,” Youngkin said.

Melissa Johnson, the victim’s mother, joined Descano at the courthouse press conference and warned that the governor’s intervention could set a damaging precedent for similar cases.

“Gov. Youngkin’s actions — by inserting himself this way — were not about safety of the police or safety of our community, but rather validating the rogue action of one Wesley Shifflett — someone sworn to uphold the truth, but did not,” she said.

The commutation does not erase Shifflett’s felony conviction, which prevents him from working as a law enforcement officer anywhere in Virginia. Shifflett could still appeal the conviction.

Descano said the unusually swift intervention came before the legal process could proceed through the steps that would ordinarily precede a commutation.

“There may be an appeal, and if there is an appeal, the state will deal with that as it comes,” Descano said. “But this is so early after a sentencing — which is really the genesis of a lot of this outrage — that we haven’t even taken any of those next steps that normally would’ve been taken at the time of a commutation.”