Nationwide — Timothy McCree Johnson, a 37-year-old African American man from Virginia, was shot and killed by a former police officer over a stolen sunglasses claim. The officer, convicted of reckless firearm use, was pardoned after spending just two nights in prison.
Former Fairfax County Sgt. Wesley Shifflett shot Johnson in February 2023 after chasing him from a mall parking deck into a nearby wooded area. Body camera footage showed Shifflett yelling at Johnson to get on the ground before firing two shots.
Shifflett said he believed Johnson was reaching for a weapon. Johnson can be heard in the footage saying, “I’m not reaching for nothing. I don’t have nothing.”
In 2024, Shifflett was convicted of reckless firearm use in Johnson’s death but acquitted of manslaughter. According to ABC News, Shifflett received a full pardon from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on January 15, just days before the governor’s term ended.
Youngkin cited a police department report saying Shifflett’s actions were “objectively reasonable” because he believed Johnson posed a serious threat. Less than a year earlier, Youngkin had already reduced Shifflett’s three-year prison sentence, sparking criticism from Johnson’s family.
Johnson’s mother, Melissa, condemned the pardon, questioning why the jury’s verdict and the judge’s sentence were overridden. “Why now do we find it necessary to vacate or not consider the jury’s verdict, and to think that this honorable and fair judge did not sentence within the guidelines that he was afforded to?” she asked at the time.
Shifflett spent only two nights in prison before being released under the governor’s clemency. The case has left Johnson’s family and the community struggling with the loss and the controversy surrounding the pardon.