A wrongful death lawsuit against the former Fairfax County police officer who fatally shot Timothy Johnson outside Tysons Corner Center in February 2023 appears to be headed toward a settlement.
Fairfax County has agreed to pay Johnson’s mother, Melissa Johnson, $1.1 million to settle her claims against former Fairfax County Police Department Sgt. Wesley Shifflett, according to court documents.
Under the agreement, which was reached on Dec. 4, 2025, the majority of the money will go into savings accounts for Timothy Johnson’s three children, who will be able to access the funds once they turn 18. The settlement also includes $440,000 to cover attorney’s fees.
A hearing to finalize the settlement was requested for this Friday (Jan. 30) at 10 a.m. before the U.S. District Court in Alexandria. If the agreement is approved, Shifflett is expected to drop an appeal he filed on Dec. 10, challenging the lower court’s denial of qualified immunity for him.
“The case has been resolved and the appeal will be dismissed,” Victor Glasberg, an attorney representing Melissa Johnson, confirmed to FFXnow. “I am not at liberty to discuss further.”
The county declined to comment on the case, and an attorney representing Shifflett didn’t respond to inquiries by press time.
Claims in the lawsuit against other members of the Fairfax County Police Department were dismissed by a judge last October prior to the settlement agreement.
Originally filed in January 2025, the lawsuit’s conclusion follows a separate decision by former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to grant Shifflett an absolute pardon on Jan. 15, two days before his term ended.
The governor previously gave Shifflett clemency and commuted the three-year prison sentence he received for his October 2024 conviction of recklessly discharging his firearm when he shot Timothy Johnson on Feb. 22, 2023, calling the punishment disproportionate to the offense.
Shifflett was acquitted of a manslaughter charge.
“The deadly force used by Sgt. Wesley Gonzalez Shifflett on February 22, 2023, was both lawful and consistent with the department’s policy and training,” Youngkin wrote in his pardon, citing the findings of an April 7, 2025 report by Fairfax County Independent Police Auditor Richard Schott.
The pardon will vacate Shifflett’s reckless discharge conviction, according to VPM News, which first reported Youngkin’s action. It was the only absolute pardon that the former governor granted during his four years in office.
Shifflett and another FCPD officer, James Sadler, shot at Timothy Johnson, a 37-year-old Maryland man, while pursuing him for allegedly shoplifting two pairs of sunglasses from Nordstrom.
According to the Associated Press, body camera video played during his trial showed Shifflett yelling “Get on the ground,” and then firing two shots at Johnson two seconds later. After the shots were fired, Shifflett immediately shouted, “Stop reaching,” and told other officers that he saw Johnson putting his hand in his waistband. During the trial, Shifflett testified that his “motor functions were operating more quickly than I could verbalize.”
Soon after, Johnson can be heard saying in body camera videos, “I’m not reaching for nothing. I don’t have nothing.”
Police determined that Johnson was unarmed.
Tasked with monitoring and reviewing administrative police investigations involving in-custody deaths or the use of force, Schott found Shifflett’s stated belief that Timothy Johnson may have been reaching for a weapon to be “objectively reasonable at the time,” even though the assumption turned out to be incorrect, according to his report.
The independent police auditor noted that Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis fired Shifflett “based on inconsistent statements he made to” investigators about the shooting, not for the decision to fire his gun.
Glasberg says Youngkin’s pardon had no impact on the wrongful death lawsuit, since those involved had agreed to a settlement more than a month earlier.
“Youngkin is a little Trumpkin, and his pardon is of a piece with Trump’s pardon of the rioters who invaded and damaged the Capitol,” Glasberg told FFXnow by email, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Congress. “Nuff said.”
Melissa Johnson and Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, whose office prosecuted the criminal case, both slammed Youngkin for commuting Shifflett’s sentence on March 2, 2025.
“Gov. Youngkin’s actions — by inserting himself this way — were not about safety of the police or safety of our community, but rather validating the rogue action of one Wesley Shifflett — someone sworn to uphold the truth, but did not,” Melissa Johnson said at a press conference the following day.
Schott, whose office monitors and reviews administrative police investigations of in-custody deaths and use-of-force cases, declined to comment on Youngkin’s decision to pardon Shifflett, stating that he “will stick with what was in my report.”
In his report, Schott recommended that the FCPD simplify its use-of-force policy by dropping language distinguishing between fleeing individuals suspected of a felony or misdemeanor. He also noted that the police department was working with community groups to develop a policy dictating when officers should engage in a foot pursuit.
The FCPD adopted a formal foot pursuit policy on April 9, 2025 — two days after Schott published his report — but drew criticism from the Fairfax County NAACP, which said the final policy had been released without consulting community members or incorporating their feedback.
Correction: This story initially included Fairfax County Police Captain William Arnest, Shifflett’s supervisor prior to the shooting, among the people included in the settlement. While a judge initially let the case against against Arnest proceed, the claims against him and other supervisory officers were ultimately dismissed.
