By Brian Trompeter
A special grand jury on Oct. 12 indicted a former Fairfax County police officer on charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless discharge of a weapon in connection with the Feb. 22 shooting death of an unarmed shoplifting suspect outside Tysons Corner Center.
Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Descano pressed for the special grand jury after a grand jury in April declined to prosecute former Fairfax County police Sgt. Wesley Shifflett, who fatally shot Timothy McCree Johnson, 37, of Washington, D.C., following a foot chase outside Tysons Corner Center.
“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 media statement released Oct. 12.
The shooting occurred when Sgt. Shifflett and Pfc. James Sadler, both of whom were working with the police department’s Tysons Urban Team, chased Johnson outside the mall that night after the suspect reportedly stole a pair of designer sunglasses from the mall’s Nordstrom store and set off an anti-theft alarm.
Shifflett, who was in uniform, and Sadler, who was working in plain clothes, pursued Johnson across the parking lot and into a wooded area, all the while commanding him to get on the ground, police said.
Both officers discharged their service pistols, and a round fired by Shifflett stuck Johnson in the chest. The suspect later died from his wound. A police search of the wooded area afterward did not find any weapons.
Police officials “administratively separated” Shifflett from the department following the shooting and a judge in July denied his petition for reinstatement.
A court date for Shifflett will be set on Friday, Oct. 20.
