A former Fairfax County police officer was indicted after police say he shot and killed an unarmed Black man who was suspected of shoplifting from the Tysons Corner Center mall in February.
The indictment by a special grand jury, announced Thursday, comes after a first grand jury declined to indict the ex-officer in April, meaning they did not find probable cause to bring the charges.
Timothy Johnson died after police chased him and shot him in a wooded area near the Tysons Corner Center mall in Northern Virginia on Feb. 22. He was 37.
Johnson had been suspected of stealing a pair of sunglasses, which likely was a misdemeanor offense.
Wesley Shifflett, who was dismissed from his job as a police sergeant, was indicted on felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless discharge of a firearm.
Johnson’s mother, Melissa Johnson, said she’s thankful her family will get their day in court.
“I’m so grateful to God for just this victory in this small step in the process, because what I'm cognizant of is, a lot of families, this is not their story,” she said Thursday.
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano called for the special grand jury, which he called “pretty unprecedented.”
“My goal is always to give a grand jury everything that they need to make an informed decision, and using the special grand jury gave us that opportunity to make sure they got a fulsome presentation, and this is the result that we got from it,” he said.
Descano said in a statement that he believes there’s probable cause that Shifflett committed a crime.
"The work of public safety includes charging officers for crimes when such actions are legally warranted. After reviewing the evidence in this case, I believe that probable cause existed that Shifflett committed a crime, and that the entirety of the evidence should be put to a jury of community members,” Descano said in a statement. “Seeking justice blindly in cases involving officers improves public trust in the law enforcement agencies that serve and protect our communities; failing to do so disgraces the role of prosecutor and ruins the public's trust in the justice system.”
"Our nation's justice system has historically been stacked in favor of protecting powerful institutions and individuals, and it is no small feat that the grand jurors returned a true bill after reviewing this matter,” the statement continued.
Shifflett's lawyer, Caleb Kershner, said Descano should have respected the first grand jury's decision refusing an indictment.
He said in a text message: "Descano's actions have made Fairfax less safe. He has torn down the deparrment moral. He is simply Monday mornimg quarterbacking an officers desition to use lethal force when he reasonably believed he about to be shot. its easy to sit back and second guess an officers actions. few people understand what its like to have a gun pulled on you and regularly being put in risk of death. these men and women in uniform serve by putting their lives on the line every day. Descano has no concept of that. A grand Jury returned no true bill earlier this year. that wasnt good enough for this Commonwealth attorney. he had to assemble a special grand jury so he could control the process and get an indictment. Its purely political and shameful." [sic]
Fairfax County police said in a statement Thursday: "The Fairfax County Police Department respects the criminal justice system and its processes. The announcement of a special grand jury indictment of a former FCPD officer strengthens our resolve to continue our focus on world-class training and data-informed policies consistent with the expectations of our community."
Johnson’s mother previously called for an independent investigation.
"Was shoplifting right? Absolutely not. But we have laws in place to address shoplifting. Should my son have been murdered because he shoplifted from the mall?" she asked.
In April, Shifflett's attorney said his client was relieved by the first grand jury’s decision. At the time of the shooting, Shifflett had believed Johnson was pulling out a gun, his attorney said.
“The way that Officer Shifflett saw it at that moment was that he had to do this or he would almost in an instant be dead, given the circumstance. Everybody knows it’s reasonable to believe someone digging in their waistband as if they were pulling out a gun — that’s exactly what’s happening,” he said.
A night at the mall turned deadly
Johnson was looking at designer sunglasses in the Nordstrom store at the mall the night of Feb. 22. After a security guard said he stole a pair of sunglasses, two officers chased him into a wooded area near the mall.
Both officers fired, Johnson was shot in the chest, and he was taken to a hospital, where he died. An investigation determined that Shifflett fired the fatal shot.
Police Chief Kevin Davis released dimly lit video showing a nighttime foot chase that lasted less than two minutes. In a slow-motion version of the video, it sounds as though two shots were fired after an officer yelled “get on the ground” but just before shouting “stop reaching.”
After the shooting, the body camera video records Shifflett telling another officer he saw Johnson “continually reaching in his waistband” and that he told Johnson, “Let me see your hands.” But that command cannot be heard on the video.
Police searched for a weapon, but none was found.
The second officer who shot at Johnson, James Sadler, was placed on modified duty.
What’s a special grand jury?
The rules for a special grand jury are different from those for a regular grand jury. Most significantly, in a regular grand jury, prosecutors are absent from the room when police officers present evidence and testimony to the grand jurors.
The use of special grand juries is rare. In Fairfax County, the only other time Descano sought a special grand jury was in the case of another fatal police shooting — the 2017 shooting of Bijan Ghaisar by U.S. Park Police officers after a stop-and-go highway chase. The charges in that case were ultimately dismissed by a federal judge.
Shifflett is due to appear in court on Oct. 20.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
