Former Fairfax Co. police officer sentenced to 3 years in deadly Tysons mall shooting
A former Fairfax County, Virginia, police officer has been sentenced to three years in prison in the fatal shooting of a man suspected of shoplifting outside Tysons Corner Center in 2023.
On Friday, a Fairfax County judge sentenced 36-year-old Wesley Shifflett to five years in prison, with two years suspended and an additional five years of probation in the death of Timothy McCree Johnson, 37. Shifflett was convicted in October of recklessly handling a firearm, but was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
In February 2023, police were called to the Nordstrom department store in the southern area of the mall for reports of stolen designer goods.
According to a police account of the shooting, an officer saw Johnson exit the store and set off an anti-theft alarm. Police chased Johnson through a parking garage and into the woods, where officers said he disobeyed orders to get on the ground.
Johnson was shot after running through the parking garage and outside the mall, and died from a gunshot wound to the chest.
Surveillance video footage and body camera footage showed Johnson taking a pair of sunglasses from Nordstrom, then exiting the store toward the parking garage. Plainclothes officers could be seen following Johnson out of the store and near Route 7, yelling commands to get on the ground and stop reaching for his pants.
Soon after, Johnson can be heard saying: “I’m not reaching for nothing. I don’t have nothing.”
When he did not comply and ran further into a wooded area off the site of the mall, officers opened fire, striking him once in the chest.
The Fairfax County Police Department fired Shifflett the following month for what Chief Kevin Davis called “a failure to live up to the expectations of our agency, in particular, use of force policies.”
“Today, the person who was responsible for this tragedy has been held accountable. I hope that today’s hearing, and the conclusion of this case, brings the Johnson family a step closer on their path to healing, and I want to thank them for their tremendous grace through this process,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said in a news release.
Descano added that trust in police “can only be repaired by seeking accountability through the justice system, and failing to do so would make the work of our police force — who are as dedicated to community safety as I am — that much harder.”