A former Fairfax County police officer who shot and killed a man in Tysons had his prison sentence commuted tonight (Sunday) by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Former Sgt. Wesley Shifflett was sentenced to serve three years in state prison on Friday (Feb. 28) after being convicted of recklessly handling a firearm.
“In this case, the court rejected the Senior Probation and Parole Officer’s recommendation of no incarceration nor supervised probation and instead imposed a sentence of five years’ incarceration with two suspended and an additional five years of probation,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Sgt. Shifflett has no prior criminal record, and was, by all accounts, an exemplary police officer. It is in the interest of justice that he be released immediately.”
It was Shifflett who was determined to have fired the shot that killed Timothy McCree Johnson, a 37-year-old man from D.C., outside Tysons Corner Center on Feb. 22, 2023.
Shifflett and another officer began to chase Johnson after he was reported to have stolen two pairs of sunglasses from the mall’s Nordstrom store.
The officers pursued Johnson outside the mall, across a parking lot and into a wooded area before both officers drew their weapons and fired in his direction after allegedly seeing him tug at his waistband.
Johnson, 37, was struck once in the chest and later died from his injuries.
In October, a jury acquitted Shifflett of manslaughter but convicted him on one count of recklessly handling a firearm, however, stemming from his decision to fire his weapon in the often-populated area around Tysons Corner Center.
On Friday, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows sentenced Shifflett to five years in prison but suspended two of them. The former police officer was also handed five years of probation following his prison sentence.
Ultimately, with Youngkin commuting his sentence, Shifflett will have served only a couple of days behind bars. His attorney confirmed to WUSA9 that he was released today.
The commutation doesn’t preclude Shifflett’s right to appeal his conviction, Youngkin noted.
The decision was condemned by Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, who secured an indictment of Shifflett via special grand jury after an initial grand jury declined to indict him.
“I’m outraged at Youngkin’s decision tonight,” Descano said. “Glenn Youngkin has spent the last four years honing his Trump impersonation, and now he’s following in his footsteps by commuting sentences just to score political points. This is an insult to all Virginians who value an untainted justice system.”
