A former Fairfax County police sergeant who shot and killed an unarmed shoplifting suspect outside a mall in Northern Virginia last year was acquitted Friday evening of involuntary manslaughter.
The jury convicted Wesley Shifflett of reckless handling of a firearm after the death of Timothy Johnson outside Tysons Corner Center.
Melissa Johnson, Timothy Johnson’s mother, thanked the prosecution for its work on the case and the media for its coverage.
“I wanted to declare that what we have achieved in this wrongful death case in 590 days is unprecedented, and it is a miracle,” Johnson said. “We have witnessed the firing of the white ex-Fairfax County police officer in the death of a Black, unarmed man. We have had to request a special grand jury indictment. We have gotten a speedy trial. And all of the instances that have come up against us since this case and this trial began up until today’s jury verdict, all of this in only 590 days.
“Together we stand for justice for Timothy, and today we accept the jury’s verdict,” she said. “I want to acknowledge that most Black and brown families who find themselves in the same situation do not get this far.”
At times Friday, Melissa Johnson prayed and sang hymns as she awaited the verdict. Her family locked hands and held each as the verdict was read.
“Today’s verdict has provided Mr. Shifflett a second chance – a benefit that my son, Timothy McCree Johnson – was not afforded,” Melissa Johnson said outside court.
She also expressed forgiveness.
“My prayers are with Mr. Shifflett and his family,” Johnson said. “As they have had to endure this, so have we since day one. And although nor him or his family have offered any condolences toward me and our family, I want to say that I forgive him and I have no malice in my heart toward him. He knows the truth, and that is between him and his maker.”
Shifflett will be sentenced Feb. 28. He faces one to five years in prison.
Shifflett testified that he shot Johnson in self-defense because he saw Johnson reaching into his waistband, possibly for a gun. Johnson was unarmed. Prosecutors said Shifflett acted recklessly by chasing Johnson into a dark, wooded area and firing two shots without ever identifying a gun.
During closing arguments, the prosecution told the jury Shifflett was unreasonable, shot at Johnson without aiming and was not doing his job as expected.
The defense put several officers on the stand, including the Fairfax County officer who trains recruits on deadly force at the academy. They testified Shifflett complied with his training and did not have to see a gun to use deadly force.
Johnson was 37. In the months after the police shooting, Johnson’s mother said she would fight for justice for her son. She questioned why police resorted to deadly force.
"Was shoplifting right? Absolutely not. But we have laws in place to address shoplifting," she told News4. "Should my son have been murdered because he shoplifted from the mall?"
Two Fairfax County officers working at the mall confronted Johnson as he left the mall in February 203. Police had received an alert that Johnson had stolen two pairs of sunglasses from Nordstrom.
The officers chased Johnson into a wooded area and Shifflett opened fire, hitting him in the chest. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Ex-officer testified he was ‘the most scared I have ever been'
Shifflett gave the jury his account of what happened.
“[Johnson] tripped and did a barrel roll and as soon as he tripped, he came up on his knees and was facing me … He just looked at me and didn’t respond to commands. He then reached into his waistband and was moving back and forth,” Shifflett testified.
“We locked eyes, and at that moment, it was the most scared I have ever been in my life,” he said.
He also told the jury, “I did not have the luxury to wait to see a gun … We are trained that hands are going to harm you and hands are what are going to kill you.”
During cross examination, the prosecutor played Shifflett’s body camera video repeatedly. She said exactly one second passed between Johnson facing Shifflett and reaching into his waistband and Shifflett shooting Johnson.
Shifflett said his eyesight was much better than the quality of the body camera video. Earlier in the day, another officer also testified that the video quality was not as good as what they could see in the woods that night.
Defense attorneys had asked for a mistrial
The case was sent to the jury Thursday after a mishap Wednesday threatened to derail the trial. During prosecutors' closing arguments, the government mistakenly played a snippet of video taken from Shifflett's body-worn camera a few minutes after the shooting that had never been introduced at trial.
In the clip, Shifflett explains to other officers that he told Johnson “show me your hands,” something he never actually said to Johnson before or after firing the shots.
Prosecutors went on to argue that Johnson made up the quote in his explanation to officers because he already knew that “he messed up.”
Defense lawyers objected and said after Wednesday's hearing they intended to seek a mistrial because of the mistake, which prosecutors acknowledged was an error.
On Thursday, though, defense lawyers —apparently pleased with how the case is shaping up — made no request for a mistrial. Judge Randy Bellows simply instructed jurors to ignore that portion of prosecutors' argument.
What attorneys said in closing arguments
Shifflett's defense lawyer, Caleb Kershner, said during his closing argument Thursday that Shifflett reasonably believed his life was in danger when he saw Johnson reaching for his waistband. While Shifflett thought at the time Johnson was reaching for a gun, Kershner speculated that Johnson was actually trying to get rid of the designer sunglasses he had stolen.
He cautioned the jury against judging Shifflett's split-second decision in hindsight and cited what he said is an old axiom among police officers: "Better to be judged by 12 than carried by six."
In her rebuttal closing Thursday, prosecutor Jenna Sands told the jury that even if they believe Shifflett when he says he saw Johnson reaching for his waistband, they should still convict him of involuntary manslaughter and reckless handling of a firearm.
She said his decision to pursue Johnson into a dark wooded area over an allegation of stolen sunglasses was reckless and unreasonable, as was his decision to fire two shots on the run in a crowded area.
The dimly lit bodycam video of the video is inconclusive as to whether Johnson reached into his waistband.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis fired Shifflett shortly after the shooting for violating the department's use-of-force policies. But when Davis publicly released the bodycam video of the shooting, he acknowledged the ambiguity of the video.
“More often than not, the police body camera footage speaks for itself,” Davis said at the time. “This time, it does not.”
The long road to a verdict
Prosecutors' efforts to present their case against Shifflett have not gone smoothly. Initially, a grand jury declined to indict Shifflett. At that point, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, who won office on a campaign platform that included holding police officers accountable for misconduct, convened a special grand jury that operated under rules that gave Descano more oversight over the process.
The special grand jury returned indictments on charges including involuntary manslaughter and reckless handling of a firearm.
The trial was delayed for several days when the lead prosecutor suffered a serious medical issue. A different prosecutor stepped in after several days.
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