Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, granted clemency to a fired police sergeant just days after the officer was sentenced to prison in connection with shooting and killing an unarmed man accused of stealing sunglasses.
Wesley Shifflett, 36, was sentenced Friday to three years in prison after he was found guilty of recklessly handling a firearm in the Feb. 22, 2023, killing of 37-year-old Timothy McCree Johnson. He was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in Johnson’s death.
Youngkin granted Shifflett clemency on Sunday, allowing the officer to be freed from prison, although his felony conviction will remain.
“I am convinced that the court’s sentence of incarceration is unjust and violates the cornerstone of our justice system—that similarly situated individuals receive proportionate sentences,” Youngkin said in a statement. “I want to emphasize that a jury acquitted Sgt. Shifflett of the more serious charge of involuntary manslaughter, a conviction for which the sentencing guidelines recommend no jail time or up to six months’ incarceration.”
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“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,” the governor continued. “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.”
Youngkin also noted that his clemency does not limit Shifflett’s right to appeal his conviction for reckless discharge of a firearm.
Johnson’s mother, Melissa Johnson, said Youngkin’s decision felt as if it validated Shifflett’s killing of her son.
“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 said at a news conference on Monday. “I don’t know where everyone’s coming from — if it’s because my son was Black, or because it was attempted shoplifting, or because he’s not here to defend himself.”
Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano, a Democrat whose office prosecuted the case, said at the news conference that the governor “stuck his face in where it didn’t belong.”
“If you care about having a fair justice system of Virginia that’s untainted by outside influence, Glenn Youngkin just spit your face,” Descano said.
Descano also argued that the governor was siding with a “White officer that was convicted of a crime that ended in a Black man being killed.”
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Shifflett, who at the time was a sergeant with Fairfax County police, acted recklessly when he shot and killed Johnson after a short foot pursuit outside Tysons Corner Center. Police had received a report from security guards that Johnson had stolen sunglasses from a Nordstrom department store.
Shifflett and another officer chased Johnson into a densely wooded area near the mall before Shifflett shot twice at Johnson, who was unarmed.
The former sergeant testified that he shot Johnson in self-defense after he believed Johnson reached into his waistband once he fell.
Body camera video played during the trial showed Shifflett yelling “Get on the ground” before firing two shots at Johnson two seconds later. After firing his weapon, Shifflett immediately shouted, “Stop reaching,” and purported to other officers that he observed Johnson putting his hand in his waistband.
Shifflett testified that his “motor functions were operating more quickly than I could verbalize.”
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Johnson was heard in the footage saying, “I’m not reaching for nothing. I don’t have nothing.”
Melissa Robey, executive director of the police advocacy group We Black Blue, said Monday that Shifflett’s mother called her three weeks ago about her son’s upcoming sentencing hearing to ask for help.
Robey, who previously worked in Youngkin’s administration, said she contacted Shifflett’s attorneys, who ultimately lobbied the governor for clemency.
“Somebody’s got to say ‘Enough is enough,'” Robey said. “These guys put that uniform on every single day — they’re there for your worst day. When is it time to stand up for them?”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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