An ex-Fairfax County, Virginia, police officer faces indictment for the fatal shooting of an unarmed suspect accused of shoplifting at the Tyson Corner Center in shopping center in February 2023. A special grand jury determined that there was sufficient evidence to charge the officer with murder and the reckless discharge of a weapon.
According to court records, while on patrol at the mall, Wesley Shifflett and a fellow officer encountered Timothy McCree Johnson, 37, as he was being pursued by a security guard on suspicion of stealing sunglasses from a Nordstrom department store.
Both officers shot at Johnson, but a police investigation revealed it was Shifflett’s bullet that ended the Black man’s life.
The man’s mother could not believe that her son’s life was ended as a consequence of such a petty theft.
“He’s dead from shoplifting. Not robbing someone with a gun, not burglarizing something with a gun. An unarmed shoplifter is dead now,” Johnson’s mother, Melissa Johnson, said, adding that they also believe he did not pose a threat to the officers.
Weeks after the shooting, Police Chief Kevin Davis fired Shifflett because he believed based on video the former officer exhibited “a failure to live up to the expectations of our agency, in particular use of force policies.”
The chief said he viewed a poorly lit two-minute video that gave him a glimpse of what happened that night. In a slowed-down version, it appears that two shots were fired before the officer gave the command to “get on the ground.”
After Shifflett shot Johnson, bodycam captures him telling his colleague that the man was “continually reaching in his waistband” and that when he asked him to “let me see your hands” he did not comply. However, that command is not audible on the video.
Watch the full bodycam footage here.
Also, at no point did the police ever find the alleged weapon.
“More often than not the police body camera…
Read the full article here