Days after a judge sentenced a former Fairfax County police officer to prison in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man accused of stealing sunglasses in Tysons, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin stepped in to commute his sentence.
Youngkin’s action means former Fairfax County police officer Wesley Shifflett, 36, won’t have to serve further time behind bars.
A judge sentenced Shifflett to serve three years in prison on Friday after he shot and killed a suspected shoplifter outside of Tysons Corner Center in February 2023.
Shifflett had been convicted by a jury in October 2024 for recklessly handling a firearm but was not found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Youngkin said Sunday he commuted Shifflett’s “unjust” sentencing, saying it violates “the cornerstone of our justice system” and how it’s in the interest of justice that he be released immediately.
“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 release.
“Sgt. Shifflett has no prior criminal record, and was, by all accounts, an exemplary police officer.”
According to a police account of the shooting, an officer saw Timothy Johnson, 37, exit Nordstrom after taking a pair of sunglasses and head toward the parking garage.
Officers said after Johnson failed to comply with orders to get on the ground, Shifflett fired his weapon at Johnson, striking him in the chest. He died at a hospital.
At trial, Shifflett claimed self-defense, testifying he believed Johnson possessed a firearm. The former police officer said he grew concerned about a weapon after noticing that Johnson was reaching for his waistband after falling to the ground during a brief chase on foot through a wooded area.
“At that moment, that was the most scared I had been in my life because I thought at any moment he would pull out a gun and just start shooting me,” Shifflett said during trial. “I didn’t have the luxury to wait and see a gun because I knew in an instant I could be dead.”
Bodycam footage showed to the jury during the trial proved inconclusive. Asked why he discharged his weapon before telling Johnson to “stop reaching” toward his waistband, Shifflett said his “motor functions were operating more quickly than I could verbalize.”
Johnson’s mother, Veronica, earlier reflected on the Friday sentencing as a “David and Goliath moment.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated from a prior version to clarify the charge Wesley Shifflett was convicted of.
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