Melissa Johnson, Timothy Johnson’s mother, at the NAACP Justice Rally outside the Fairfax County Government Center on Saturday morning, April 1: “He was our son, and he was loved.
Only once before in the history of the Fairfax County Police Department has a police officer faced charges for shooting and killing someone while on duty. That incident was a 2013 police shooting by Adam D. Torres of an unarmed man, John B. Geer.
On Sept. 17, the criminal trial of Wesley Shifflett, former Fairfax County police sergeant, began in the fatal shooting of a man suspected of shoplifting sunglasses. Shifflett faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless weapon discharge. Shifflett fatally shot unarmed shoplifting suspect Timothy McCree Johnson, 37, on Feb. 22, 2023.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano announced on Oct. 12 last year that a special grand jury indicted Shifflett on felony charges. Before Shifflett's trial, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows granted prosecutors' request to acknowledge that Johnson was unarmed when Shifflett shot him in court hearings — information that Shifflett's attorney had sought to exclude from trial.
Jury selection began and concluded on Tuesday,Sept. 17, seating twelve. Opening statements and testimony began on Wednesday.
The testimony continued until Thursday, when it abruptly paused. Shifflett's counsel, Caleb Kershner, filed a motion for a mistrial after the prosecution put the second FCPD officer involved in the shooting on the witness stand without his lawyer present in the courtroom.
The fatal shooting of Johnson occurred at night outside the busy Tysons Corner Center after Shifflett and Officer James Sadler responded to suspected shoplifting of sunglasses, according to The Connection on Wednesday, October 18, 2023. The officers chased a suspect, later identified as Johnson, in a foot pursuit out of Tysons Corner Center mall to a parking garage, down its stairwell, through the garage, across a pedestrian overpass, and toward Rt. 7, finally heading into a small wooded area. Pops of gunfire sounded on the released body camera video as the officers fired their weapons. Johnson was struck in the chest once.
According to the police-worn camera footage, Johnson says, “I’m not reaching for nothing. I have nothing … I’m shot, man. Hurry.” Other officers rendered aid until Fairfax County Fire and Rescue arrived.